16 September: why this date matters

2026-09-16

On 16 September 1977, late in the morning, Maria Callas died in her apartment at 36 avenue Georges-Mandel, in Paris. She was fifty-three. The news travelled the world within hours: the voice that had redefined opera had fallen silent — and the silence she left has never quite closed.

Forty-nine years have passed. Every 16 September, in Paris as in Athens or Milan, her memory is honoured, her recordings played again, her name remembered. The Maria Callas Foundation, created by those close to her, marks this date every year — in 2025, with a Paris screening of Callas – Paris, 1958, her legendary restored debut recital, given in support of the collection.

One year from the fiftieth anniversary

This 16 September carries a particular weight: it opens the year of the fiftieth anniversary. On 16 September 2027, half a century will have passed — and the Foundation has set itself a goal to match the moment: to open in Paris the Maria Callas Museum, the first museum founded on an authentic collection devoted to the artist. The project is under way; the year now beginning will be decisive.

Until then, the mission continues, day after day: preserving, restoring and documenting the world's most significant private collection devoted to Maria Callas — her letters, her costumes, her photographs, and hours of recordings the public has never heard.

To remember is to act

Memory is not decreed: it is built, piece by piece, tape by tape. Those who wish to take part in the anniversary year can join the Friends of Maria Callas, support the Foundation — or simply subscribe to the newsletter, to be the first to know what 2027 holds.

One 16 September, the voice fell silent. It is up to us to make the next one hear it again.

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