How much of the external world referenced in Maria Callas resembles the real thing

Angelina Jolie gives a committed performance, but she can't help the distracting, nearly otherworldly perfection of her looks.

The real Callas, by contrast, was striking, glamorous, and elegant, but not a classical beauty like Jolie .

In the film, Maria ’s butler, Ferruccio , and her cook/maid, Bruna , are as much family as staff.

Maria 's mother forced her to sing for Nazi soldiers during World War II .

Biographer says Callas suffered from dermatomyositis , a condition related to muscular sclerosis.

In 1965 , when she was 41 , Callas’ voice gave out during a performance of Norma in Paris .

In the film, Maria slips out in the afternoons to a small theater where sympathetic British accompanist and vocal coach Jeffrey Tate runs through “ Habanera ” from Carmen with her, mostly for her own pleasure rather than with any intention of public performance.

Callas did indeed start rehearsing at the Champs-Elysées theater with Tate at least a year before her death.