Riverside Theatre’s Master Class Soars As Callas’ Dramatic Aria

Karen Ziemba as Maria Callas in Master Class at Riverside Theatre (Photos by )

By Pam Harbaugh

VERO BEACH — You are in for quite the theater treat at Riverside Theatre’s splendid production of Master Class. Starring award winning Broadway actress Karen Ziemba, this production rings with artful sophistication and reveals Riverside Theatre at its finest.

Terrence McNally’s 1995 Tony Award winning drama invites audiences to imagine themselves at a master class given in the early ‘70s by the legendary opera star Maria Callas. An opera lover, the playwright was inspired by his deep admiration of Callas and the series of classes she taught at The Juilliard School in the early 1970s.

The play includes actual recordings of Callas, but it focuses on the woman as artist. It begins with the lights up full on stage and in the audience. The sparse stage is highly evocative of performance studios at venerable schools such as The Juilliard.  We see a grand piano, a small table with pitchers of water and tissues, and another small table with a chair. No production trappings, just the bare stuff of art – talent, dedication, passion and courage.

The piano accompanist (Julian Bond) enters followed unceremoniously by Callas. She speaks directly to the audience as though they are there as opera students, eager to learn. She picks out a couple of people sitting close to the stage and chides them for not having discovered their own “signature look.”

“You expect people to remember you if you don’t have a look?” she quips. But this is no stand-up gimmick. Callas is earnest in her passion to share what makes someone unforgettable, what makes them immortal.

She casually complains that it is too bright, that she needs a cushion for her chair and a foot stool. Lights are eventually turned down and she receives her footstool from a stagehand (Steve Yeomanson) who is not at all impressed by her. Indeed, he acts rather put out that he has to serve what he perceives as her elitist needs. Given the current political climate, it is not a grand jeté to see that thread still weaving its way through our society decades later.

“Attention must be paid, especially to every detail,” says the larger-than-life diva. If this is the mantra of Maria Callas, Ziemba embodies it wholly.

Ziemba is quite the stage force. A Broadway dancer and singer, she won a 2000 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for her work in Susan Stroman’s Contact. She’s also been nominated three other times for a Tony Award, including for her singing and dancing role of Georgia Hendricks in Curtains.

But in Master Class, it is all drama. And Ziemba handles it as deftly as her pirouettes in Contact and her bawdy singing and dancing in Curtains. She is at once charming and demanding, nuanced and grand. Her disdain for artifice rings clear in her throwaway line “I don’t believe in microphones.”  A simple phrase like “the real world” turns into a three-word lecture about the world’s woeful state. “People are forgetting to listen” becomes a challenge to hark back to a more authentic, unplugged, acoustic time.

Opera students begin to enter the stage. The first is Sophie De Palma (Jazmin Gorsline), who has worn a too-short dress and does not have a pencil to take notes. She says she’ll try. Callas responds with “Trying just isn’t good enough…do!” The student doesn’t even finish the first note when Callas interrupts with demands to accent the consonants and fully understand what her character is doing.

A few more “notes” and the lights shift tenderly to Callas, sitting at her table. Callas’ recordings play in the background, and she speaks about her own glory days. This brings sudden, unexpected tears as we see her relive her greatest times, now living only in memory and artifacts. Projections of La Scala fill the room, we are swept up and emotion swells. “You’re on stage – use it, own it” she says. “Never miss an opportunity to theatricalize.”

A young tenor, Anthony Candolino (Tim Quartier), enters with an annoying swagger. His singing sounds fine, but she demands more. And the more she demands, the more insecure the tenor becomes. Finally, we see him melt into a real human, ready to create real art. Quartier’s is a fine performance and worthy of the burst of applause.

Finally, Sharon Graham (Zina Ellis) performs Lady Macbeth’s aria which reflects her famous “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts” speech. The lights switch again to reflect on Callas’ inner thoughts, which begin slyly as a mirror image of the speech. But it drifts into a dark part of Callas’ life with Aristotle Onassis. It is heart wrenching but never filled with self-pity. Instead, we see the strength that was Callas’ North Star. As before, Ellis’ performance is stunning and most deserving of the sudden applause it elicits.

This is such a wholly satisfying theater experience. You are lifted by it, inspired by it, moved by it. Director DJ Salisbury shows a fine, restrained hand in all this. He has such instinct for dramatic gesture, but here, he wisely curbs that instinct and lets his fine cast bring to it all the gusto that is needed.

Following suit are Salisbury’s designers – scenic designer Emily Luongo, costume designer Kurt Alger, lighting designer Genny Wynn and sound designer Craig Beyrooti – who bring just what is necessary to support the action and characters.

This is excellent theater. Do not miss it.

Master Class runs through Sunday, February 23 in Riverside’s Waxlax Stage. Performances are: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Wednesdays, select Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $65 for general admission and $32.50 for students. Riverside Theatre is at 3250 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, Fla. Visit RiversideTheatre.com or call 772- 231-6990 for tickets.

This is a version of Pam Harbaugh’s review running in Vero News.