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By: Stuart Duncan
The title of Master Class, presented at The Villagers on the main stage through June 23, pretty much says it. Terrence McNally’s play is a re-creation of some special teaching sessions conducted by opera diva Maria Callas at the Juilliard School in New York during 1971 and 1972.
The work is based on fact, but liberally fictionalized to present Ms. Callas’ celebrated virtues and faults a character that was vain, tyrannical, passionate, very much the perfectionist and never one to suffer fools.
In reality, tapes exist from the "master" classes at Juilliard to remind us just how fictionalized the playwright has made the events. By 1971, Ms. Callas had little left of her once magnificent voice, and she conducted her classes with great professionalism and few traces of the characteristics the playwright uses so liberally. She was always graceful and respectful to her students, certainly never tyrannical.
That, indeed, would have made for a boring evening. Hence, the playwright has introduced long monologues in each act that recall, first, her early marriage to a much older Babtista Meneghini, and later her torrid affair with the coarse, arrogant Aristotle Onassis, before he left her for Jackie Kennedy. Further, the monologues are played against recorded arias from Ms. Callas’ most famous operas.
Mr. McNally also has his principal character insisting: "Art is domination. It’s making people think that for that precise moment in time, there is only one way, one voice, yours."
It is this thought that inspires every actress who undertakes the Callas role. Catherine Rowe, who took over the part at the Villagers halfway through the rehearsal process, finds a comfort zone well above passionate but below tyrannical. She twits the stagehand for his lack of concern, banters with the accompanist, but never savages the three soloists who are being led to apparent slaughter. Zoe Caldwell, who played the role on Broadway, was more theatrical, if not historically accurate, but Ms. Rowe seems to have more respect for those who would emulate her. It is as if she had listened to those tapes.
The three students are nicely played by Sarah Kuhns, as the unfortunate soprano who not only wears too short a skirt for Ms. Callas’ taste but fails to get more than a single note out of her mouth; a second soprano, Kelly Birgfeld, overcomes a queasy stomach to get through Lady MacBeth’s letter-reading scene with distinction, if not Ms. Callas’ complete approval; and the playwright’s clear favorite, and also the diva’s, is tenor Dominic Mantuano, who not only exchanges a few barbed jokes but sings "Recondita Armenia" from Tosca beautifully, and without interruption. He has a very bright future indeed.
One small moment neither Ms. Rowe nor Village director Michael Driscoll want you to miss: Ms. Callas illustrates a point by quoting Medea’s pleas to Jason, "Ho dito tutto a te" (I gave everything for you). Ms. Rowe practically spits out the words as she uses them a subtle reminder she had given everything to Onassis, as indeed Medea had given to Jason, and he had left her for a younger woman, a princess in fact.
Ms. Rowe’s Italian is superb all evening; here it is her finest acting moment. As she spits it out to the audience, one can almost smell the whiff of cordite in the evening breeze.
Maria Callas died in mid-September 1977.
She was 53.
Master Class continues at The Villagers, 475 DeMott Lane, Somerset, through June 23. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $16; seniors and students;$12 Fri. and Sun. For information, call (732) 873-2710.