UK Theatre Network

We are not performing seals that look at the audience instead of concentrating on the dramatic situation.

Inspired by the master classes Maria Callas actually gave in New York in the early seventies, Terrence McNally paints a compelling portrait of a unique artist. His Tony Award winning play takes us to the Juilliard School in New York, in 1972, where Callas - with an accompanist at a grand piano – teaches three aspiring students the meaning of art.

This play is a gift for an actress with stage presence and Stephanie Beacham is absolutely wonderful as Maria Callas. She is glamorous, commanding, larger than life - and very funny. There soon is a close rapport between “La Divina” and her grateful audience as she chides the three students for their lack of preparation and seriousness. Her first "victim" is Sophie, a perky soprano, who “does not have a look.” Sophie chooses to sing one of the most difficult arias, the sleepwalking scene from La Sonnambula - an aria that Callas made famous. Before the girl can even sing a note, Callas stops her - what has started out as a class turns into a platform for Callas. She reminisces about her own career, her sacrifices and her triumphs. Callas then acts out the entire aria, eventually reducing the poor girl to tears. Sophie does get the chance to show what she has learnt but as soon as Sophie starts singing Callas enters an interior monologue about her own performance of that aria and the thunderous applause she received at La Scala. Only the second student, a tenor, truly moves Callas.

Directed by Jonathan Church, the acclaimed artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, this production is not only vastly entertaining but truly moving. The play is a star vehicle but the beautiful performances by Robyn North as the hapless Sophie de Palma, Christopher Jacobsen as the romantic tenor Tony Candelino and Pamela Hay as the resentful Sharon Graham should not be overlooked. This is not only a play about a wonderful opera singer but also a play about what being an artist really means.   

The show runs until 29 January 2010 at the Richmond Theatre.

Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ
http://www.ambassadortickets.com/2073/659/Richmond/Richmond-Theatre/Master-Class-Tickets