Master Class

Master Class by McNally, Terrence. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780452276154.

Master Class is a pyrotechnical theater—fireworks in a contained space where Maria Callas is brought back to life in Sturm und Drang. Inspired by a series of master classes the great diva conducted at Juilliard toward the end of her career, this drama puts Maria Callas at center stage again as she coaxes, prods, and inspires students—"victims" as she calls them—into giving the performances of their lives while revealing her own. As she slips off into memories, we experience her days at La Scala, her marriage to Meneghini, and her great doomed love for Aristotle Onassis. But the dazzling theatricality comes from Callass emotional explosions, her cutting wit, and the soaring music as each student sings an aria that exposes the Divinas vulnerabilities … and her genius.