Maria Callas Gets the Guests
Terry Teachout
July 7, 2011: What do opera singers do when they outlive their voices? Often they teach, and if they're famous enough, they may be invited to give "master classes" in which they work with promising students in front of an audience. Maria Callas, the most famous and admired opera singer of the 20th century, taught a series of master classes at New York's Juilliard School in 1971, six years after she retired from the stage, and Terrence McNally, who in addition to being a much-produced playwright is a well-informed opera buff and occasional librettist, used them as the basis for a 1995 play called "Master Class" that hit big on Broadway and has since been revived frequently elsewhere. Now "Master Class" has returned to Broadway by way of Washington's Kennedy Center, this time in a production starring Tyne Daly, who has admitted in numerous interviews to knowing nothing about opera, and staged by Stephen Wadsworth, a theatrical director who also has extensive opera-house experience.
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