Life is full of drama, and history is full of drama. Even 44 years after her death, Maria Callas, Greece's greatest diva, continues to struggle with the creative squabbling that was her lot.

This time, though, the controversy is centered on a monument built at the foot of the old Acropolis, just across from the Roman theatre where the world-renowned opera singer made her debut.

The 1.8-meter-high sculpture, which was built in honor of Callas by admirers who saw her as one of the country's most underappreciated treasures, has been criticized for being kitsch, unfit, and, worst of all, having no resemblance to "La Divina."

Last week, the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, presented the gilded sculpture, which has since been mocked in cartoons and sparked a social media frenzy. Opponents have compared it to an Oscar trophy without the Hollywood glitter, describing it as "Gandhi in heels."

The piece suffers the cardinal error of getting Callas' stance incorrect, according to Michael Moussou, a former opera singer and creative director of the Athens festival, held every summer in the Herodes Atticus theatre where she first sang.

“Nothing could be less representative of Maria Callas,” he claimed, adding that “no opera singer, not even a second-grade student at music school, would ever adopt such a pose with crossed arms in front of their chest,” as it would “block voice production.”

He said, "Opera is about singing and... freeing up the voice." “If Callas tried singing in the sculptor's stance in real life, the result would be like a violinist trying to play on a broken violin.”

The monument was many years in the making and was created by Aphrodite Liti, a professor of sculpting at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Before it was built beside the cobblestone Dionysios Areopagitis avenue, it needed approval from the ephorate (council) of contemporary monuments and the country's strong archaeological watchdog, KAS, ahead of festivities planned to commemorate the centenary of the artist's birth in 2023.

The Maria Callas Greek Society, the organization of fans that commissioned the piece, supplied Liti with photos of the singer. In response to the outcry, the sculptor claimed that a photograph of the singer in costume for a performance at Milan's La Scala opera theater struck out to her "because of its Greek features, Doric style, and simplicity," and it was on this that she eventually based the piece.

"I was given the joy of studying a unique personality and [the ability] to speak of her through emotion," Liti told the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini.

Few singers have had such an impact on opera as Maria Callas. Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos was born in New York to Greek immigrant parents and was named Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos before returning to Athens and rising to fame.

However, admirers have long complained that, while lauded for her vocal range abroad, the great dramatic singer has remained underappreciated at home, where she is better known for her ill-fated affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and by extension, her tumultuous relationship with Greece, than for any of her supreme operatic abilities.

A four-story museum dedicated to her, which was supposed to open within sight of the Acropolis six years ago, is still a shell.

The Italians, on the other hand, who regard Callas as one of their own due to her marriage to entrepreneur Giovanni Meneghini and her lengthy tenure at La Scala, have dedicated streets after her.

The criticism was "totally unfair," according to Liana Skourli, who established the Maria Callas Greek Society and helped collect money for the monument.

She maintained that the fact that a work in Callas's image had been built at all was owing to "the blood and tears" of the intrepid few who wished to see the singer given her due.

"The whole point of this statue was to promote her Greekness," she said. "Any sculptor would tell you that conveying a celebrity's underlying passion is difficult. We anticipated a little commotion and a little commotion, but nothing like this."

Thanks to Helena Smith at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.