1. CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS
   A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER

Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being difficult, petulant, and opinionated only served to heighten people’s interest in her and boost her fame, as did her very public love life, including a long affair with the uber-wealthy shipping magnet Aristotle Onassis. Her nature, her talent, and her noted decline in her vocal abilities (attributed to strain and too-sudden a drop of eighty pounds) makes her a great topic for a drama about her.

In Terrence McNally’s 1995 script, we meet Maria (Sandy Campbell) around age fifty in the 1970s. The setting is a small Juilliard music conservatory where Maria is taking on students for short master classes in opera singing. The students are all far from novice level, but the chance to be coached by a legend excites them, all hoping to receive praise and guidance from the legend. What makes the show so delicious is that Maria is anything but mentor-like to her students; she criticizes them before they ever open their mouths to sing. Anything that she sees in them becomes an excuse for Maria to talk about herself instead (ironically stating, repeatedly, that the class is about them, not her). Through these tangents, we learn about Maria’s difficult life – the poverty-laden youth in Athens, the failed loves, and her rivalries in the opera world. Maria isn’t heartless, but she’s so self-absorbed that she can come across that way.

Over the course of the show, she takes on a mere three students before she has no more to give that day. Sophie (Abigail Grace Allwein) lacks connection to the meaning of her performance; Sharon (Sara Frondoni) can’t make an entrance well enough to please Maria; Tony (Ben Read) isn’t serious enough for her liking. Director Phil Johnson find three very talented opera singers (they need to be, as they perform selections from Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, and Boito) who can also act and do so wonderfully here, taking on their characters within ever overstepping Maria’s. The one solid relationship she maintains is with her magnificent piano player, Manny (Kyle Adam Blair, who plays flawlessly and is also musical director) and even that interaction works because, comically, he has learned how to kowtow to the great diva.

Having mentioned everyone around her now, the show lives or dies on the casting of Maria, following the likes of Zoe Caldwell, Patti LuPone, Faye Dunaway, Dixie Carter, and Tyne Daly in the role. In this case, Johnson has cast exceptionally. Ms. Campbell bursts onto the stage with energy and never ceases to hold us in her grip, whether it’s in her biting barbs, her passion for the music, or her storytelling in remembering her past. Particularly gripping is a several minute monologue where she gets lost in a memory and portrays both Callas and Onassis in dialogue with one another. Callas never sings in the script, so we never get to hear Campbell do so – something of a pity given her stellar singing in Cygnet’s recent Follies – but given the three opera singers surrounding the lead, it’s likely that McNally didn’t want to limit his selection of excellent actresses to those who could also sing opera. One clever trick of McNally’s script is that her one-on-one master classes are apparently open for other students to audit, so we are those students doing so. This give Callas the ability to speak directly to us about her feelings without it looking like she’s talking to herself.

Johnson is known for his accentuating of big comic antics, but effectively reins that in here, yielding a show that certainly has comic moments–including a few sweet times when a stagehand (Tim Benson) is the one person who isn’t intimidated by Callas–but leans more toward moving, dramatic tension with lovely imagery.

One needn’t be a real opera lover (this reviewer isn’t) to fully appreciate the strong performances, clever dialogue, and talented singing in this excellent collaboration between two long standing theatres in town. The two hour-long acts fly by, and Campbell’s performance is likely to be a strong discussion around town and some nights are already selling out, so catch it while you can.

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photos by Tim Botsko

Master Class
Scripps Ranch Theatre in partnership with Roustabouts Theatre
Alliant International University, 9783 Avenue of Nations in San Diego
Fri & Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2; Mon at 7:30 (Dec 8)
ends on December 14, 2025
for tickets, call 858.578.7728 or visit Scripps Ranch Theatre

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