V&A’s Diva show uses costumes and artefacts to celebrate female creativity

Dresses worn by Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas – and Elton John’s 50th birthday costume – feature in London exhibition

“I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best,” Maria Callas – one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century – once said.

For the sentiment, Callas and countless other performers, from Barbra Streisand to Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, have been labelled as “divas”. The term, which means goddess in Italian, has over the years come to denote a self-important person, usually a woman, who is demanding and difficult to please.