What to know about the opera singer Maria Callas before watching the Netflix biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie

In Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Angelina Jolie transforms into the late opera diva Maria Callas—not just physically, with her chic French wardrobe, luxurious stage looks, and curly wigs, but also vocally. The film features a mixture of her own live vocals and Callas’s archival recordings,

Angelina Jolie plays Callas in a performance that trades on the actress' otherworldliness; it takes a diva to play a diva, and Jolie's portrayal fits her subject. Jolie, especially in the present, doesn't quite seem to walk among us,