Vital statistics
Sir: Michael Scott's claim (Arts, 8 August) that he was the first to quote Maria Callas's birth date accurately is nonsense, and, as `the New York friend' who looked up her birth certificate, I ought to know. Nadia Stancioff, on whose contributions Scott's `good manners forbid any comments', was the first to get the date right, in her 1987 memoir of the singer. It was published four years before Scott's biography, but he has obviously never read it.
LETTERS
This apparently trivial vital statistic seems to have eluded all previous biogra- phers, including Mama Callas herself, who `remembered' her daughter's birth in a rag- ing snowstorm. Stancioff had the common sense to check New York newspapers and learned that no such melodramatic meteo- rological event took place. I accompanied Stancioff on visits to Callas's school, church and childhood friends, and assisted in her research. In addition to dispelling several long-standing myths, we were also the first to turn up details of her father's short-lived pharmacy.
Scott's important contributions to the field of opera are sullied by this rancid review and ad feminam sniping at col- leagues. Callas deserves better.
Joel Honig
216 West 89th Street, New York, NY, USA
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