Callas 1958 Rome Walkout

On the 2nd of January 1958, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma premiered a production of Bellini’s Norma. The event was to be attended by Giovanni Gronchi, the current president of Italy and as always when Callas was to sing, the house was full. Radiotelevisione Italiana had positioned its microphones, ready to broadcast each note to the country.
The story of what happened next is well known. As the first act came to a close, Callas’ voice revealed telling signs of stress. To raucous applause, she quietly exited the stage. In exhaustion, she would leave the theatre before the second act could begin. The city exploded in protest.
The day before the opening night, Callas alerted the management that she was not well and that they should have a standby ready. She was told "No one can double Callas". After being treated by doctors, she felt better on the day of performance and decided to go ahead with the opera. A surviving bootleg recording of the first act reveals Callas sounding ill. Feeling that her voice was slipping away, she felt that she could not complete the performance, and consequently, she cancelled after the first act. She was accused of walking out on the president of Italy in a fit of temperament, and pandemonium broke out. Doctors confirmed that Maria had bronchitis and tracheitis, and the President's wife called to tell her they knew she was sick. However, they made no statements to the media, and the endless stream of press coverage aggravated the situation. A newsreel included file footage of Callas from 1955 sounding well, intimating the footage was of rehearsals for the Rome Norma, with the voiceover narration, "Here she is in rehearsal, sounding perfectly healthy", followed by "If you want to hear Callas, don't get all dressed up. Just go to a rehearsal; she usually stays to the end of those." The scandal became notorious as the "Rome Walkout". Callas brought a lawsuit against the Rome Opera House, but by the time the case was settled thirteen years later and the Rome Opera was found to be at fault for having refused to provide an understudy, Callas's career was already over.