Theater Reviews

Sep 25, 2001 - The Brilliant Karen Chandler is Callas in RLT's "Master Class"

By Jack Neal

As a guest on one of last season's Metropolitan Opera intermssion interviews, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was asked if she'd ever heard Maria Callas in person.

"No," Justice Ginsberg answered, "but I was riding in an elevator once, when Maria Callas got on. She was wearing an ermine coat and carrying a dog to match. She looked ever inch the diva. We never spoke, but when I got off the elevator I knew I would win my arguments in court that day."

Such was the mystique of the superb Callas. And, yes, Justice Ginzberg did win in court that day. "Art is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours." So says Terence McNally's Maria Callas in his play, "Master Class."

McNally's "Master Class" is being presented in Reno by the Reno Little Theater. The production is directed by Tony DeGeiso who's had the good luck, or shrewd sense, to cast the splendid Karen Chandler as the world's most revered and feared opera star of the 20th century.

"Master Class" has Chandler playing Maria Callas, not as a singer, but as an instructor, imperiously advising, when she can stop talking about herself, three aspiring young stars of opera. Although past her singing days, in McNally's play Callas remains the most famous Greek woman in the world, and she has the most famous and richest Greek man in the world, Aristotle Onassis, for her lover. Or had him until his interests shifted in the direction of President Kennedy's widow.

From time to time McNally dissolves away from Callas's master classroom, leaving the singer to address us in private monologues, revealing a less-than-sure woman whose bravada and fame allows her some compensation for the lack of success of her personal life. Chandler paces back and forth across the stage in a striking outfit of black blouse, black slacks and black shoes. She sings but a few notes, yet with the turn of a hand and the tilt of her head she suggests the psychological adjustments needed to create lists of memorable performances. One never doubts that if she could only transfer what she has within herself to her pupils, they would sing as if they were as possessed as Callas was, when she sang, acted, and became one unforgettable personality after another in a host of compelling performances in a host of great operas.

Known to legions of worshippers as La Divina, Callas defined a variety of tragic heroines with such conviction her portrayals remain touchstones of achievement nearly a half century after her prime. Can such a larger-than-life personality be encompassed in a play? Probably not, but McNally does make it possible for a fine actress to become the epitome of a great personality and transport an audience into the inner sanctums of what makes a great talent tick.

The displays of temperament, personal revelations and putdowns of the students, played admirably by Donnell Wolf, Gena Roberts and Mathew Mahan (Richard Szitar is their able accompanist), that make McNally's script so playable are mostly invention. For all its claims about authenticity, there's little that's historically authentic about the play except its insight into the mind of an inspirational artist. It's what Chandler does with McNally's insight into that artistry that's so hauntingly revealing. Her stunning performance is what makes this "Master Class" one of the rare community theater presentations to surpass many professional productions sporting star actresses attempting to be Maria Callas. Chandler never waivers. She succeeds brilliantly. When Karen Chandler's on stage she is Maria Callas.

"Master Class" can be seen twice more, Saturday, September 29, 2001, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 30, at 2 p.m. Next up for the Reno Little Theater: Sam Bobrick's "Death in England," which can be seen Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from October 26th through November 4th. Reno Little Theater productions can be seen at the Wooster High School Theater, 1313 E. Plumb Lane, Reno, near the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. For information call 775-329 0661.