Master Class

Synopsis

1971. New York. You are invited to a master class with the great soprano, Marie Callas. In five years time her death will transport her to legendary status, worshipped as the greatest diva of them all. Now she is witty, bitchy and flamboyant, demanding and insecure. She recalls the soaring highlights of her own career and her disastrous private life. She takes you back to her childhood in Nazi-occupied Greece, relives scenes with envious colleagues, insulting dressers, her elderly husband and her treatment in the hands of Onassis, one of the richest men in the world and her lover. She will transport you to the scene of her greatest triumph at Milan's La Scala opera house and thrill you with the magic of her voice. Master Class was a huge hit on Broadway where it won a Tony Award and enjoyed a West End run.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 8 November 2010

Playing real people, albeit in a fictional situation, on stage can be a daunting task. Perhaps even more than on film and especially when the people are themselves actors, dancers or singers whose actual performances have been seen by audience members. Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terence McNally is about Maria Callas after the end of her stage career when she undertook to coach young singers at New York’s Julliard School.

Stephanie Beacham looks right as Callas from her first entrance, a diva (in the proper sense) demanding accuracy, intelligence and commitment to the work in hand from all around her. Her students are three – two sopranos and a tenor – and she both bullies and coaxes them to understand not just the notes they are singing but the power of the words and the emotions which these express. Class’ own biography is sketched in just sufficiently to add context.

That biography included marriage to the older Meneghini &...

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Latest User Review

Geoffrey - 23 January 2011:

Masterfully constructed play, and enthralling acting - Stephanie Beacham is Callas. An uplifting experience...

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