From the Blog Posts of MSI Press Authors: It Ain't Over Till (Yavelberg)
Arthur Yavelberg, author of the multi-award-winning book, A Theology for the Rest of Us , shares the following column from his blog: “If there is nothing for which you would commit murder, you cannot play the role of Lady MacBeth! ” That is how the now aging opera diva, Maria Callas , dismissed a young, pretty, but not quite ripened, ingenue who aspired to one day take center stage on her own. She had the voice, yes, and even something of “the look,” but she lacked the life experience to be able to channel the passions depicted by a William Shakespeare or Giuseppe Verdi. While this production at the Arizona Theater Company did not intend a spiritual debate, it is significant that Callas insisted "for which you would commit murder” and not “if you have not murdered.” In religious terms, Callas was echoing the famous line of Jesus: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.“ (Matthew 5:2