Terrence McNally Maria Callas. Master Class
Premiere of Maria Callas. Master Class by an award winning play writer Terrence McNally took place on Broadway in the year 1995. A year later the show received the prestigious Tony Award. It premiered in Poland in 1997, on the stage of Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw. The title role was played by Krystyna Janda, who returned to the part in a new adaptation of Maria Callas. Master Class staged at the Och-Theatre in the year 2015.
The play is based on master classes that Maria Callas gave at the Juilliard School of Music between 1971-1972, six years after her last stage appearance – Tosca at Covent Garden. We see the heroin for the first time as she enters the classroom, where she is supposed to teach. A monologue begins, full of retrospections, reflections on what is art, how much it gives and how much it takes away. Young, talented students are scrolling through the class. The Diva spills at them the bitterness of her lost glory and the poignant loneliness of an artist, who, after leaving the stage, is left all by herself.