One hundred years after Maria Callas' birth, Jolie portrays the soprano, saying she found a connection with the Greek diva.

The Metropolitan Opera House was awash in pearls and tuxedos on a recent gala evening. Socialites traded political gossip by the bar, and bankers discussed coming vacations in the Maldives. Then a golden elevator door slid open and a glamorous figure slipped out.

“Maria,” Pablo Larraín’s cinematic portrait of opera legend Maria Callas, arrives as the third of the director’s films centered on iconic women of the 20th century.

Jolie, whose combination of artistry and larger-than-life stardom makes her the only actress who could play this part right now, is luminous.

In Callas’ less perfect moments singing in the film, Larraín fuses archival recordings of Callas with Jolie’s own voice. Some mix of the two runs throughout “Maria.” “Early in the process,” Jolie says, “I discovered that you can’t fake-sing opera.”