Maria Callas

The term diva is worn thin now from misapplication, but there was a time when the word summoned the image of just one woman: the passionate, brilliant, temperamental soprano Maria Callas. Born in New York to poor Greek-immigrant parents, Callas (her real name was Kalogeropoulos) was an international superstar by age 30, having to hide her heavy brows and kohl-rimmed eyes from paparazzi behind giant glamour glasses and draping her famous curves in Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Gucci. Her demise was a very public, very Greek tragedy: her lover, Aristotle Onassis, dumped her for Jackie Kennedy just as her voice began to fail. But to the end, nothing could crack her charismatic mien.

—Janet Ozzard