History
Callas was born in New York on December 2, 1923, to Greek parents. In 1937, she moved to Athens with her mother, where she studied at the conservatory and sang her first major roles at the Greek National Opera during the war.
Her international career began in Italy in 1947. In the 1950s, at La Scala in Milan, she revived the bel canto repertoire, from Norma to Lucia di Lammermoor, and became known as "La Divina." She spent her final years in Paris, where she died on September 16, 1977; her ashes were scattered in the Aegean Sea.
For the centenary of her birth, the Bank of Greece is dedicating one of its two commemorative 2-euro coins to her in 2023, struck in Athens and put into circulation in July.