Bringing Maria Callas Back to Life in Master Class
This February, Binghamton’s Tri-Cities Opera presents American playwright Terrence McNally’s award-winning 1995 drama Master Class, a play drawn from the life of one of opera history’s greatest sopranos, Maria Callas. The production blends old with new, as it has become the signature piece of its star, Andrea Gregori; but here marks the first time since its 1949 founding that the company has staged a straight play (albeit one with irrefutably opera-related bona fides). This production is also historically special because, for the first time, it will be directed by Cynthia Clarey, a former student of the very Maria Callas master classes which are dramatized in the play.
The Tri-Cities Opera is presenting Master Class in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Maria Callas’ 1977 death at only 53, and the 95th anniversary year of her birth. The play - which won Tony and Drama Desk awards and garnered performers Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald respective Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Tony Awards - was first performed with Gregori in the starring role in 2011 by the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players. She has since reprised the role with her own theater company in Newport, Rhode Island, as well as locally at the Endicott Performing Arts Center and the Roberson Museum and Science Center.
Of her initial performances, Gregori recalls, “I was terrified. It’s a huge role. It’s monologue after monologue. I had remembered that Cynthia [Clarey] was in the original master classes at Julliard, and so I reached out to her and asked if she would share her experience with me. She was kind enough to do so. We spoke on the phone and it had an incredible impact on my preparation of the role. It gave me so much insight - and I am forever grateful to Cynthia for that. It was invaluable to have that in my preparation.”
Maria Callas
The significance of working with Clarey as a director is not lost on Gregori. “This will be the first time I’ll be doing it with a different director,” she says, “and not just a director, but someone who was there! Someone who experienced her. Someone who lived and breathed the whole experience. Someone who is as close to Callas as we will ever get. So this is such an incredible opportunity for all of us. It’s a little terrifying!”
Clarey recalls that, “At the time that I did the master class, I had never sung an opera. I didn’t know very much about opera at all. We did not have an opera department for undergrads at my university. So there was a general audition around the school for her, and she chose me to be in the class. I don’t even remember what I actually sang for her during the audition. And so I was very honored, even though I knew very little about opera, or about her for that matter.”
She reveals, “I really went to school in New York because I wanted to do musical theater. But, all that aside, the only bel canto aria that I knew was Casta Diva. I didn’t realize that that was her signature role! So I’m sure that when I announced what I was going to sing, there may not have been an audible gasp, but the audience was like, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ But of course I didn’t know any difference. And she was very, very kind to me in the class.”
Callas was renowned both as an artist and as a celebrity. Called La Divina for her timeless vocal performances, she was also the lover of Aristotle Onassis, and a glamorous figure even to those with no interest in opera. By the 1970s, she was already a living legend, but no longer starring in operas. As Clarey relates, “Most of the time she was La Callas, but every now and then you would see a little slip and there would be a bit of vulnerability there of the Maria that was hiding inside. It had to be a really daunting thing for her, because she had pretty much stopped singing by then for about eight years. And she needed desperately to get back into something. So the opportunity to do these classes came up. And it turned out to be more of a way for the public to see her. I don’t know if that was her purpose, but that was kind of what it became, rather than a real masterclass.”
For Clarey, Master Class is about bringing to life an evocative portrait of a complex, troubled, but brilliant woman. “Somebody,” as she puts it, “who was so successful, and such a major, major star and artist, but who had spent so little time with herself. She was such a great servant of the arts, of singing and music. Unfortunately, she somehow denied the human woman who was the other part of Maria Callas. And she made a great sacrifice. It was a choice. But I don’t even think she knew that it was a choice. And that is something that I would not recommend to anybody. You have to find the balance between who you are and what you do. It’s almost like resurrecting somebody. And I’ve gone through some changes in my mind about her, having really delved into her life a bit more. It’s just going to be really interesting to see what we come up with. “
And for Gregori, that portrait “has a universal message - even if you’re not really an opera fan, if you don’t really know about Callas, just the work itself is brilliantly written. Whatever it is you choose to do in your life, to do it with the utmost dedication and determination. That you owe that to yourself, and that nothing less will suffice.”
Master Class also features Sophie de Palma, Anthony Candolino, Sharon Graham, Emmanuel Weinstock, and former Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan in the cast. Performances are on February 23 and 24 at 7:30pm and February 25 at 3pm at Savoca Hibbitt Hall, Tri-Cities Opera Center, 315 Clinton St in Binghamton. Master Class is a coproduction with Theatre Street Productions. Tickets cost $40 or $55 for premium seats and can be bought by calling (607) 772-0400 or going to tricitiesopera.com. Cynthia Clarey will discuss her experience in Maria Callas’ classes at a free preview February 17 at 7:30pm.
