She would want to sing the most difficult coloraturas, scales and trills. Even as a child her willpower was terrific. Four years later she made her official debut with the Athens Opera. At the end of World War II, she went back to New York on her own. She auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera at the time that Edward Johnson was the general manager.
Nobody takes it seriously.
She turned down the offers. She came close to making her American debut in Chicago with a group of Italian singers, but that fell through for financial reasons. In 1947, she was given a contract to appear in Verona, and she sailed for Italy. Also making his debut in the opera was the late American tenor, Richard Tucker. In Verona, Miss Callas met one of her most important mentors, the Italian conductor Tullio Serafin.