Terrence McNally ostensibly wrote “Master Class” about the great opera star Maria Callas.
But at its heart, the play, Arizona Theatre Company‘s current offering, is about the creation of art.
The struggles, the pains, the joys, the deep dedication and deeper feeling that go into making art run rampant through the play.
Suffering, or at the very least the understanding of suffering, is necessary for art, the play tells us.
And it is all through the teachings and musings of Callas that we learn this.
The play was inspired by a series of master classes that the past-her-prime Callas gave at Juilliard.
In McNally’s version, she is an acid-tongued and unforgivable teacher. (In reality, she was much the opposite when teaching those classes.)
Vicki Lewis’ diva is arrogant, often cruel, occasionally funny and always dedicated to the art. In the play, the Callas character guides three opera students, sometimes with stinging dismissal, sometimes with reluctant grace. Lewis embodied the spirit of the opera star and made us hang on every word.
This is not a breeze of a role to take on — Lewis never leaves the stage except during intermission. While teaching, the students fade away while she reminisces about her career, her loves, her mother, her disappointments, her triumphs, all while a recording of Callas plays in the background.
Timing one’s monologue to the music is not an easy feat; Lewis made it seem so — even when the music sometimes overpowered her words.
Her students were portrayed by Rachel Gold, who barely got a note out before Callas began to coldly correct her; Victor Ryan Robertson moved the teacher with Cavaradossi’s aria from Verdi’s “Tosca,” and Kanisha Marie Feliciano, who beautifully sang an aria from Verdi’s “Macbeth,” then had the courage to tell Callas she is cruel and not well liked.
Accompanying the students on a shiny black Steinway is Walter “Bobby” McCoy, who indulges the diva while trying to assist the students.
“Master Class,” which won a 1996 Tony for Best Play, doesn’t really hold up over the years. Callas’ cruelty to the students would not be tolerated (we hope) these days, and there is a thinness to the script that is more obvious than when it first came out.
But this ATC production, precisely directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, is still compelling. And the message about the commitment to, and need for, art still resonates today.
Arizona Theatre Company’s “Master Class” continues through March 23 at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets are $25-$95 at atc.org or 833-282-7328. Run time is two hours, with one intermission.
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