To the generations of opera singers that came after her, she’s still an era-defining consummate artist. “She’s an icon. There’s no other way to put it,” said bass Morris Robinson, who recently sang the role of Ramfis in “Aida” with Boston Lyric Opera.

It’s a telling moment in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” when opera legend Maria Callas, played with forceful elegance by Angelina Jolie, rails about how much less she earns as a singer than Frank Sinatra. It’s not jealousy;