Master Class by Terrence McNally

First published: 1995

First produced: 1995, at the Plays and Players Theatre, Philadelphia

Type of plot: Biographical; musical

Time of work: 1971

Locale: Juilliard School of Music, New York City

Principal Characters:

• Manny Weinstock, the accompanist
• Maria Callas, the famous opera singer
• Sophie de Palma,
• Sharon Graham, and
• Anthony Candolino, her students

The Play

Master Class is based on the master classes given by the renowned real-life opera singer Maria Callas at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in 1971 and 1972. In the play’s two acts, Maria’s interactions with her students are interspersed with reminiscences of her stormy life.

After Maria enters, wearing expensive clothes, she tells the audience there must be no applause because this is a working session. Music, she says, is a demanding discipline. There are no short cuts to success. She tells of how, during World War II, she used to walk to the conservatory and back every day, even though she had no proper shoes. Then she subjects her accompanist to some withering remarks that reveal her abrupt and imperious manner, after which she turns her attention to her first student, a young soprano named Sophie de Palma. Maria criticizes her appearance and tells her to get over her nerves. Sophie manages only to sing the first word of her chosen aria, from La Sonnambula (1831) by the Italian composer Vicenzo Bellini, before Maria interrupts. It is not the only time she interrupts, as she tries to get Sophie to listen to the music and to feel the true emotions of the character, the passion behind the words. She berates the hapless student for not having a pencil handy to take notes and for not knowing the names of all the great sopranos.

As Sophie begins to sing, Maria reminisces about her own performance as a recording of Maria Callas is played. She recalls her relationship with the wealthy Greek businessman Aristotle Onassis. Imitating his crude manner of speaking, she has him say that it was because of his connection to her that people began to respect him in a way that they had not formerly done. He boasts of his wealth and wants her to end her singing career and have his child. Then Maria recalls with a feeling of triumph her great performances at La Scala in Milan, and how she had succeeded against all the odds.

In act 2, the next student, Sharon Graham, enters. She is a soprano who is to sing one of Lady Macbeth’s arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Macbeth (1847). Maria tells her to go off the stage and reenter in character, and she also mentions that Sharon’s gown is inappropriate for the occasion. Sharon exits but does not return, and Maria realizes she has hurt the student’s feelings. Yet, she is unapologetic.

The next student is Anthony Candolino, a tenor. Like the other students, he receives his share of criticism from Maria, who tries to send him home. He persists, and when he finally sings an aria from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca (1900), Maria is enthralled.

After this, Sharon returns, claiming that she was sick. She tries once more to sing Lady Macbeth’s aria, but again Maria stops her and gives her some coaching about how to sing with passion. She sends Sharon backstage and then summons her again to repeat the scene. This time the audience hears not Sharon but a recording of Maria Callas singing the same piece in a live performance from 1952. As she listens, Maria recalls some dramatic moments from her life, including her debut at La Scala, in which she had thirty-seven curtain calls; the moment she told her husband Battista Meneghini that she would be marrying Onassis; the time when Onassis bullied her into aborting their baby; and the day she was fired at La Scala.

When the recording of Callas ends, Maria tells Sharon she should work on music more appropriate to her limitations. Upset, Sharon lashes out at Maria, telling her she can no longer sing and is envious of anyone younger who can. She leaves.

The play ends with Maria’s reflections. She says that she has tried to communicate her beliefs about what the artist and musician do. Her advice to the singer is to think of the expression of the words, practice good diction, and express deep feelings.

Dramatic Devices

The two acts of Master Class have a similar structure. In act 1, Maria’s session with her first student is followed by a monologue in which Maria recalls significant moments in her life, including the moment when her lover Onassis asked her to bear his child and that of her triumphs at La Scala. The reminiscence forms the climax of the act. It is sparked by the aria that her student has been attempting, and this is also the cue for a recording of Maria Callas to be played, singing the same aria. Act 2 follows in parallel fashion: Maria’s sessions with her two students are followed by a monologue, which again features Onassis and La Scala, and which also serves as the climax of the act. As in act 1, a recording of Callas plays, prompted by the same circumstances. The similarity in structure between the two acts gives shape to a play which has no plot in the usual sense of the word.

Since Maria is the only character who is developed fully, the success of the production rests on the ability of the actress who plays Maria. It is a demanding role, which was ably performed by Zoë Caldwell in the original production. She fully captured the quirky, domineering yet fragile nature of the diva.

Another dramatic device, appropriately enough given the subject matter, is music. Two Callas recordings are played, and the students also sing arias onstage. A poignant theatrical moment that illustrates the centrality of singing comes when Maria (the character onstage, that is, not Maria Callas on the recordings) attempts to sing a single line of music. She fails dismally; the stage directions read, “What comes out is a cracked and broken thing. A voice in ruins. It is a terrible moment.” It is a reminder to the audience of the tragedy of Callas’s life. Although she was blessed with a wonderfully expressive voice, by the time she was giving her master classes in 1971, it was only a shadow of its former glory.

Critical Context

Terrence McNally, who has written many plays for the Broadway stage, is a lifelong fan of opera and of Maria Callas. He first heard Callas sing on a recording in 1953, when he was a high school student in Texas, and he later heard her sing in person many times before her retirement from opera in 1965. McNally believed that the secret of Callas’s ability to move her audience was that she identified so completely with the emotions of her characters. Her deep emotional involvement communicated itself to the audience and awakened similar emotions, whether of sorrow or joy, that they experienced in their own lives.

Master Class is not the only play McNally has written with operatic themes. In The Lisbon Traviata (pr. 1985, pb. 1986), two opera fans are in search of a recording of one of Callas’s performances as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata (1853). A recording was not known then to be in existence, although one has since been discovered. The Lisbon Traviata had only limited appeal, and it was with Master Class that McNally found a wider audience. The play ran from November, 1995, to June, 1997, on Broadway and received three Tony Awards. By 1997, there had been about forty productions of the play abroad.

Master Class is important because it re-creates on the stage, for a modern audience, a singer-actress of almost legendary status. Although there were some complaints from critics that McNally’s quarrelsome, egotistical Maria was not historically accurate—unlike her fictional version, Callas conducted her master classes in a professional, helpful manner—the play nonetheless provides a compelling exploration of how great dramatic art is created.

Sources for Further Study

Ardoin, John. Callas at Juilliard: The Master Classes. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus Press, 1998.

Brustein, Robert. “Stars and Their Gasses.” The New Republic 214 (February 5, 1996): 27-28.

Franklin, Nancy. “Goddesses.” The New Yorker 71 (November 27, 1995): 109-111.

Gurewitsch, Matthew. “Maria, Not Callas.” Atlantic Monthly 280 (October, 1997): 102-107.

Kroll, Jack. “Concerto for Diva: Master Class.” Newsweek 126 (November 13, 1995): 85.

Zinman, Toby Silverman, ed. Terrence McNally: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1997.