Yes, Maria is based on the true story of Greek opera singer Maria Callas, who died of a heart attack in 1977, when she was only 53 years old. Maria imagines the last few days of Callas’s life, in which once the once-great opera singer struggles with a drug addiction, hallucinations, and her declining health.

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,

The actress stars as Maria Callas in director Pablo Larraín’s leaden portrait of the opera singer on Netflix, primarily set in Paris during her final days.

Angelina Jolie really is singing opera in Maria, but it’s not only Jolie’s voice in the final product. The movie blended Jolie’s singing voice with recordings of the real Maria Callas, so the result is a hybrid of both Jolie and Callas’s voice.

Angelina Jolie stars as soprano Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín's film "Maria," streaming on Netflix. Here's how she prepared and transformed her voice.

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,