MASTER CLASS Vaudeville Theatre

Maria Callas, in the early 1970s, when her voice had gone and her career was over, held a number of master classes at the Juilliard School in New York to which the public were invited. Terrence McNally’s play, which won two awards in 1995 when it starred Zoe Caldwell, shows the diva in action with three students. She is patronising, rude and merciless, which may be good theatre; but is not to be taken as fact. The first victim is not allowed to get past the first note. The second victim, who sings Lady Macbeth’s letter-reading aria, rashly tells Callas she wants to be a singer and not an actress. The third, who sings Cavaradossi’s first aria in Tosca, tells her that he hasn’t thought about what he is painting. The flashbacks when Callas relives her ovations at La Scala and remembers Aristotle Onassis are a mistake, partly because they are badly acted by a miscast Tyne Daly (of Cagney & Lacey fame), but mainly because they are not nearly as interesting as the interaction between her and the students. The most arresting moment is when a humiliated student tells Callas unequivocally what she thinks of her.