\t\u201cI\u2019ll sing when I\u2019m ready to sing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s a line from Pablo Larrain\u2019s \u201cMaria,\u201d now streaming on Netflix, based on the final days of opera superstar Maria Callas. The film is peppered with flashbacks of arias by Verdi and Puccini when Callas was at the height of her success.<\/p>\n
\tAnd was Angelina Jolie, who portrays Callas, ready to sing them? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n
\tShe might be a trained actor \u2014 as a young teen, she took acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute \u2014 but she\u2019s not a trained singer. <\/p>\n
\tFor Larrain to make the film, with Jolie as his leading lady, he knew one thing, he wanted this performance to be believable. Says Larrain, \u201cThis is opera, you can\u2019t cheat.\u201d Which meant Jolie was not going to lip-sync her way through her performance. \t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tTo play one of the most renowned sopranos in the world, Jolie went through rigorous prep, going through every step necessary to pull it off. Jolie walked into her first singing class with the disclaimer that she was \u201ctone deaf.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLarrain notes she trained for over a month on each aria she had to sing. But it required a lot more of the actor.<\/p>\n
\tBreaking down her process, Jolie says, \u201cWe trained for seven months. We started with the breath work, the posture and really back to basics [of] sound.\u201d She continues, \u201cWe did a few months of just Italian. A female opera singer came in, so I could sing with her and understand the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhen it came time for the cameras to roll, \u201cAve Maria\u201d was one of the first scenes they shot. Jolie recalls feeling \u201cterrified. I was extremely nervous and extremely insecure.\u201d It was a moment of reckoning for her. While Larrain had limited the number of onset crew members to those who needed to be there, Jolie was having doubts. \u201cDid I do enough work? Am I prepared enough? Can I sing enough?\u201d She continues, \u201cIs John [Warhurst], the film\u2019s sound editor, going to look over at Pablo and say, \u2018This is a mess?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe vocals and performances were recorded live. \u201cIt\u2019s not just going and doing a gig where you go and stand on stage and sing the song. You sing it 20 times,\u201d Warhurst explains. \u201cThe reason we do that is that then gives us a heap of great recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn some scenes, Jolie\u2019s Callas performs with a piano, and in others, when Callas is at the height of her success, there\u2019s a full orchestra. Capturing those moments behind the scenes was a different story. \t<\/p>\n
\tJolie reveals, \u201cIn order to really mix us properly, I had to be the only sound in the room so there could be no piano, no Maria, no nothing.\u201d She adds, \u201cThe only sound in the room was going to be my voice, which was just the most terrifying news.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut the process meant every breath and sound was captured.<\/p>\n
\tJolie\u2019s live singing also provided the team with an important piece of the puzzle. \u201cWe also get the visual performance as well which we need to work on with the picture editor to frame it accurately, so the picture makes musical sense,\u201d Warhurst says. <\/p>\n
\tNext, Callas\u2019 vocals were extracted from the recordings. Even before that, the next step was to make Jolie\u2019s performance to sound as close to Callas as possible. Warhurst explains, \u201cWe did that by using EQ changing and tonal qualities to match into Maria.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe audio mixing revolved around percentages and considering every word and every line, where Callas\u2019 voice, especially during moments from her prime, led the way.<\/p>\n
\tThere are, however, moments where the percentage of Jolie\u2019s voice dominates. Warhurst says, \u201cIf we use a bit more of Angelina there, then that\u2019s going to be really cool. And then we really believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDuring a performance of Anna Bolena at La Scala, Jolie\u2019s Callas has a complete breakdown, and her housemaid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) is recording the performance so she can hear how she sounds. \u201cThat\u2019s almost all Angelina there,\u201d Warhurst says. \u201cThat was how she performed it on the day, and it was just perfect. We were just like, \u2018We\u2019re just going to use that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\tJolie recalls shooting that scene. The stage was available for four hours. \u201cThey did it towards the end, so we\u2019d been working towards it. It\u2019s like the greatest memory I have. I was never more scared, never more unsure and never felt smaller.\u201d She adds, \u201cWe were all equally very nervous on the day to pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tJolie also learned she wouldn\u2019t be able to see the conductor because Larrain and cinematographer Edward Lachman were going to shoot 360 degrees. \u201cIt was so beyond my comfort,\u201d Jolie recalls. \u201cI hadn\u2019t felt shy rehearsing in the dressing room because I felt I didn\u2019t deserve to be in the dressing room at La Scala. The whole thing was just overwhelming. But I say to Pablo, sometimes, \u2018It\u2019s great it was the mad scene because feelings were running so big on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe months of prep and vocal and breathing and posture training worked. Larrain says, \u201cThat\u2019s why you feel that she\u2019s actually singing, because she is.\u201d He adds with pride, \u201cShe did it. I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019ll sing when I\u2019m ready to sing.\u201d That\u2019s a line from Pablo Larrain\u2019s \u201cMaria,\u201d now streaming on Netflix, based on the final days of opera superstar Maria Callas. The film is peppered with flashbacks of arias by Verdi and Puccini when Callas was at the height of her success. And was Angelina Jolie, who portrays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}