Are You Being Sincere?🥸

I must confess that I think I'm falling in love with Maria Callas again.😂 Well, I guess "falling in love" is a bit too strong an expression, but let's say that I'm fascinated by her charm, charisma, magnetism and sincere devotion to her art. The mix of all of these features of her public persona make her just a great example for studying 'elegance', which happens to be one of my favorite things to do.😁

I've now finished reading Callas' memoirs and over 300 letters of hers (Tom Volf, 2019: Maria Callas: Lettres et mémoires), and what strikes me the most currently about her charm is actually the authenticity and sincerity in her way of communicating. She rectifies so many of the controversial things in the public narrative of her life in her memoirs from 1977 with such simplicity and intelligence – so well that it leaves actually very little questions to be answered. Even though she never finished her memoirs, aren't we fortunate that she did dictate even this much before her death!

Similarly to Barbra Streisand in her memoir My Name is Barbra (2023), Callas wanted to put forward her truth of her life in her own words, because so much of her words have been distorted by the press during decades. I’d go so far as to say, that even though both of these icons were rather timid and wanted to live a private life outside of their public career, the amount of lies that the press has told over the years almost forced them to write their own memoirs. And of course they themselves hope, as do all of their most devoted fans, that in time their memoirs serve to preserve their dignity as artists and women. For this reason, you get the feeling as a reader, that Callas, nor Streisand, did dictate their memoirs to boast about their accomplishments, but did so for the sake of truth – and maybe to reminisce slightly the events of their illustrious careers at the same time.😄

But back to the point of authenticity and sincerity. It’s just always so appealing when someone doesn’t try to be anything else but themselves, and that is true also in the case of Callas. She often mentions it in her interviews as well, that she has always put her mind and soul to everything she does, and thus, the sincerity of her emotions has won the audiences over, over and over again (pun intended😜). For example, this quote stuck with me from her memoir:

La crédibilité ne peut être atteinte qu’avec la plus grande sincérité de la part de l’interprète.

ChatGPT translates it in English like so: "Credibility can only be achieved with the utmost sincerity from the performer (or we could also say 'interpreter')."

Callas did very much embody this principle in her work. She found ways to believe sincerely in the characters she portrayed on stage and persuaded the audience to believe in them too. Yes, authenticity and sincerity resonates. That is the human connection we are usually looking for when experiencing art, or just exchanging ideas in conversation. Furthermore, I’d say that authenticity and sincerity is also a prerequisite for elegance in a personality. One cannot pretend to be elegant. It is only a side product when someone is being sincere, present in the moment, looking to connect to people and be of service.

So I’d like to leave you this week with this question that I’m also keeping on the back of my mind during the following weeks:

Feel free to consider this as a journaling prompt if that’s your jam!😉 In any case, I believe this is a good question to surface in our thoughts every once in a while. I’m currently applying this idea more to social interactions with people, since it has never been my forte. But I’m starting to realize that many of the complexities of communication start to fade the moment when I don’t put too much pressure on myself, but focus on being sincerely interested in the person in front of me and just having a fun conversation with them. Nevertheless, the road to being a good communicator is long, so let’s all be patient with ourselves and with each other!