What Evidence Supports The Reputations Of Madonna And Maria Callas As Divas?

AA100 TMA03 Page 1 of 3 AA100 TMA 03 Part 1 The Diva What evidence supports the reputations of Madonna and Maria Callas as divas? How might these reputations be compared and contrasted? Please support your answer by referring to their musical performances, as provided in the module materials. Madonna and Maria Callas are renowned singers that gained the title ‘diva’. Moohan explains, that a diva is ‘someone of supreme talent, with great vocal facility’ and furthermore, ‘has an ability to convey the emotional nuances of the music to her audience’ (2008, p. 163). However, Madonna and Callas convey their title ‘diva’ differently in certain ways. This assignment aims to show you the comparisons and contrasting information on how both singers gained

Jones explains, ‘she achieves this is by overseeing the music’s authorship and production’ (2008, p. 166). This makes her powerful and shows that she has a supreme talent of being a diva, allowing herself to become an inspirational icon to her audience. When listening to ‘Like a Prayer’ we can see that Madonna is a strong virtuosic soloist. Madonna uses a gospel choir to help convey the songs emotion, which is full of religious lyrics. Here Madonna creates a combination of pop and gospel. However, when we hear Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ her voice is far less powerful in comparison to ‘Like a Prayer’. As Jones explains, ‘you can appreciate how Madonna’s voice developed and matured’ (2008, p. 169). Expanding her vocal capability is yet another example of how Madonna gained the title diva. Turning our attention to Maria Callas it is clear why she is entitled to be called a ‘diva’. Unfortunately, the reason why she is known as a diva is quite saddening. Moohan tells of AA100 TMA03 Page 2 of 3 how she lived ‘out the tragedy of the roles that she performed’ (2008, p.

Turning our attention to Callas’s musical performance ‘Una voce poco fa – part 1’ it is clear that she possess what is key to being an operatic diva, a strong yet soft voice. Her voice moves with the orchestra and in-turn it emphasises her vocal capacity. At no point to Calla’s voice quiver under the pressure of hitting the final high note between 2’44”and 2’47” (Callas, 2008). This is yet another redeeming quality a diva must poses and Callas carries this out with ease. Furthermore, when listening to ‘Una voce poco fa – part 2’ the listener can observe the sign song voice that Callas creates where the tempo is jumpy yet still pleasant to listen to. Callas voice although operatic was able to adapt to these sudden changes and these are redeeming qualities that a diva should possess. Madonna and Callas are without a doubt both divas of their time. However, the genre of music in which they sing vary. Madonna carries off a number of genres but the main theme throughout is pop, however she combines with gospel, electronica, disco and even rap. Callas remained an opera singer throughout her musical