7 Maria Callas 7

took place in November 1954 at Chicago’s Lyric Opera in
the title role of Norma, a performance she repeated before
a record audience at the Metropolitan Opera in New York
City. Callas’s recordings were enthusiastically received,
and she was one of the most popular singers of the period.
Her much-publicized volatile temperament resulted in
several protracted feuds with rivals and managers.
After a final operatic performance as Tosca at Covent
Garden (July 1965), Callas made the film Medea (1971) and
taught master classes in opera at Juilliard (1972) before a
last U.S. and European concert tour (1973–74). By the time
of her retirement, she had performed more than 40 different
roles and had recorded more than 20 complete operas.

Clifton Chenier

(b. June 25, 1925, Opelousas, La., U.S.—d. Dec. 12, 1987, Lafayette, La.)

A

merican popular musician Clifton Chenier was a
pioneer in the development of zydeco music—
a bluesy, southern Louisiana blend of French, African
American, Native American, and Afro-Caribbean tradi-
tions. He was a master keyboard accordionist, a bold
vocalist, and the unofficial (but virtually undisputed)
“King of Zydeco.”
Chenier was born to a family of sharecroppers (tenant
farmers) in south-central Louisiana and spent much of his
youth working in the cotton fields. He received his first
accordion as a gift from his father, who was an established
accordionist in the local house-party (dance) and Saturday-
dinner circuit. Chenier immediately recruited a washboard
(frottoir) player—his brother Cleveland—to provide the
lively, syncopated scraping that has remained a rhythmic
hallmark of zydeco music. Inspired by recordings of earlier
accordion virtuoso Amadie (or Amédé) Ardoin, as well as