'Master Class' is now in session at The Players

Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” is now in session at The Players. The premise? Opera diva Maria Callas (Seva Anthony) is teaching a master class at Juilliard in 1971. The lessons involve her critiques of various opera students. But the play’s really a crash course about the teacher: Maria Callas 101. So, what lessons do we learn?

Based on the play’s evidence, there should be a picture of Callas next to the word “diva” in the dictionary. She was larger than life, ego-maniacally self-absorbed, and could a get second career as an insult comic.

According to the set-up, each student sings an operatic piece accompanied by Manny (Alan Jay Corey) on piano. Then Callas gives her feedback. I was expecting something along the lines of “The Paper Chase.” Callas’ little questions would spin the tumblers of her students’ minds. Instead, she poses few questions and dumps a load of criticism instead.

At first glance, the Callas in this play strikes me as a lousy teacher. She barely lets her students open their mouths. Everything they do is wrong, wrong, wrong. After tormenting a stagehand (Chuck Conlon), Callas criticizes Sophie (Maria Wirries) for dressing too drably and slams Sharon (Erica Reynolds) for dressing to the nines. She trashes Anthony (Christos Nicholoudis) because he’s a tenor (evidently tenors get no respect) but pulls her punches because she likes his looks. The students can’t win. But actually, they do.

Callas’ big lesson finally emerges: the operatic equivalent of method acting. It’s not enough to sing: You have to be the character and know what they ate for breakfast. The composer is God: The opera performer makes their word flesh.

Fortunately for theatergoers, Sarasota offers a pool of musical talent to flesh out McNally’s portrait of the artist as an irritable diva. Corey can play; Wirries, Reynolds and Nicholoudis can sing. Anthony has a powerful, soaring voice — although, most of the time, it’s Callas’ voice we hear through the magic of audio recording.

But this is not a musical. And it’s definitely not an operatic “Paper Chase.” McNally’s text is more like a one-woman biographical play with four minor characters enduring insults and barely getting a word in edgewise. That’s exactly how director Helen Holliday plays it in this crisp, engaging production.

On the subject of biography, we learn that Callas was a punching bag for the press, despite critical acclaim. She used to be overweight, then starved herself to a svelte beauty and lost her voice 10 years after. She was married to one millionaire, then dumped him for Aristotle Onassis. The Greek shipping tycoon never tied the knot — and ultimately dumped Callas for Jackie Kennedy. Callas ends the play with a monologue about suffering for her art. But she never seems all that keen about her own suffering.

This emerges in a night of incandescent theater. Seva puts in a blazing performance, all right—but not a surprising one. Flaming diva is to opera what mad scientist is to particle physics, after all. So, how close is McNally’s character to the real article?

Darned if I know. My operatic expertise derives from dim childhood memories of Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Concerts” and repeated views of Chuck Jones’ “What’s Opera, Doc?” My non-expert hunch is the character in McNally’s play is essentially fictional. And that’s fine by me. The Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” is fictional, too. But that’s a great play. “Master Class” is too.

Like all great fiction about fact, it draws you into an imagined world.

And leaves you hungry for the real thing.

IF YOU GO

“Master Class” runs through Aug. 16, at The Players Theatre, 838 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. For more information, call 365-2494 or visit theplayers.org