To be sure, with all this we have dealt so far only with the muscular workings of voice. We have not considered, for instance, whether or not Callas’ dieting provided her with sufficient reserves to sustain the high energy demands of her life and career, or what effect hormonal changes may have had. Nor have we given attention to the psychological impact of her new physical self, both on her own perception of it and on others’ reactions to it, in life and work, or the possible contributions of other health factors, working in tandem with weight loss to affect vocal function. I’ll take as close a look as I can at the synchronicity between weight loss and vocal problems when examining the recordings at that juncture. But even if the synchronicity proves exact, it isn’t proof. The truth is that we cannot quite pin down whether or not her crash diet, of itself, contributed significantly to her vocal difficulties. We assume and suspect, but we don’t know.

Before leaving the topic of weight loss: there is also the Tapeworm Hypothesis, often advanced as causal. Ellison dismisses it as no more than baseless rumor, and the diet regime reports are so well corroborated that I imagine she is right. However, the rumor was set afloat by Callas herself, in an interview with Martin Mayer published in High Fidelity. Mayer was the author of several books on sectors of American business (Wall Street, Madison Avenue, etc.) and of a history of the Metropolitan Opera; a knowledgeable enthusiast of opera and singing; and an entirely responsible journalist. He interviewed Callas in the spring of 1954 (he was present for her Elisabetta in the La Scala Don Carlo, and attended the Norma recording sessions), and his article was published in September of that year, just before her first American appearances with the resuscitated Chicago Lyric Opera. “What the Chicagoans will see this fall,” he wrote, “bears small resemblance to the pictures which have accompanied Miss Callas’ record albums. Those photographs showed a hefty, goggle-eyed woman, no style to her at all, while the Callas of today could be a symbol of theatrical chic,” etc., etc.—Mayer expands on her revival of an old-time prima donna glamor and her command of the stage. He pegs the then-recent weight loss at 70 pounds, and quotes Callas as cheerily reporting that she did not have to work to lose the weight: “I am not naturally fat. I had a tapeworm, and when I lost the tapeworm, I lost the fat. . . To be onstage, a woman should be attractive.” Considering the source, my own conclusion is that at that moment, for whatever odd reason, she preferred that public understanding to the real one. But we can’t dismiss the possibility that she was telling the truth. Or, that she dieted and had a tapeworm.

Abortion and stillborn Caesarian effects. Many rumors, many assertions that seem solidly enough grounded on first appearance, only to soon meet contradiction from another apparently authoritative source, and further declarations that “support” would be weakened as a result. To the best of my knowledge and judgment, however (I stand open to correction), there is no substantiated claim of either of these procedures occurring during Callas’ active years as a singer. But to allow for the possibility, I again consulted an expert in the relevant field.^(I) To summarize her responses: