Rating: 
Summary: Do Your Homework First
Review: Although the play itself was entertaining, I found it confusing, because I knew nothing about Maria Callas. Before I reached the end of the play, I could make almost no sense of her long, emotional flashback narratives. I plan to do research on the woman and reread the play, and I advise others to do so as well. As a singer I appreciated the depiction of Maria Callas and her students as artists who want to have something special that other artists can envy and strive for. Every artist experiences the wish to be different from those who possess the same dreams, and this play shows that truth. The sarcastic dialogue etches for the reader a distinct picture of Maria's character in the play. (Whether or not it is accurate to her true personality, I cannot tell.) I appreciate this play for its accurate portrayal of the struggling artist, but I am sure I will appreciate it more after I have done my homework on Maria Callas.
Rating:
Summary: Do Your Homework First
Review: Although the play itself was entertaining, I found it confusing, because I knew nothing about Maria Callas. Before I reached the end of the play, I could make almost no sense of her long, emotional flashback narratives. I plan to do research on the woman and reread the play, and I advise others to do so as well. As a singer I appreciated the depiction of Maria Callas and her students as artists who want to have something special that other artists can envy and strive for. Every artist experiences the wish to be different from those who possess the same dreams, and this play shows that truth. The sarcastic dialogue etches for the reader a distinct picture of Maria's character in the play. (Whether or not it is accurate to her true personality, I cannot tell.) I appreciate this play for its accurate portrayal of the struggling artist, but I am sure I will appreciate it more after I have done my homework on Maria Callas.
Rating:
Summary: an engaging read; an inaccurate portrayal of callas
Review: An engaging drama, fun to read. I do not think that the portrayal of Callas as a capricious and cruel instructor should mistaken as historically accurate. I would encourage anyone who is interested to look at the texts of her real master class a Julliard; parts of that master class are also available on cd. These reveal a highly dedicated and outstanding professional, a true genius in musicianship, drama, and musical interpretation. Her private life obviously provided a springboard for the plot of this play, but ms. callas did not let her private and professional worlds affect in the sense depicted here. Nor am I aware of any history of her having savaged her students!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and Good Insight into Music
Review: I have played violin since age 4 hence especially enjoyed Maria's passion for music. Her eccentricities with the students and her theatrical manner are traits with which practically anyone in the music business is destined to encounter in his or her career. Also, the significance of Maria, Ari, and Ms. Kennedy-Onassis (only briefly referred to) adds another interesting element to the play.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Good Insight into Music
Review: I have played violin since age 4 hence especially enjoyed Maria's passion for music. Her eccentricities with the students and her theatrical manner are traits with which practically anyone in the music business is destined to encounter in his or her career. Also, the significance of Maria, Ari, and Ms. Kennedy-Onassis (only briefly referred to) adds another interesting element to the play.
Rating:
Summary: The riveting story of a shining voice and tragic life
Review: Let history books decide if Callas was this or that, McNally's play is not an attempt to photograph La Divina. Master Class is a brillant play that allows the audience to enter onto the stage at La Scala and quaking with fear, hit that one perfect note. You follow the corridors of Maria Callas' character through her past, her grief, her triumph, and her art as she teaches a master class. Read this play and then see it, if you interest is in a great tragic story rather than detailed scholarship you will be tremendously engaged.
Rating: 
Summary: A hystarical play, no wonder it won the Tony
Review: Master Class by Terrence McNally is a hystarical play written for adults, due to some sexual content, about a master class in Opera. The play begins with Maria Callas a prima dona of the stage. She is holding the class to improve todays singers so they can become great like she is. The story has many flashbacks of Maria's life from her affair with Aristotle Onassis to an abortion she has. The only downfall to the play was the itallian was hard to understand. And some references delt with Opera.
Rating:
Summary: a play that you will hunger for if hooked...
Review: Terrence McNally captures Maria Callas' "voice" in such a real, true way. Her statements to her class is in that self-contradictory way that can be found in the statements she announced in her life, but her long soliloquys are heartbreakingly human, letting us inside the monstre sacree that she was.The other characters are finely drawn too, but Callas' character is what drives the play. In order to further get a hold on this woman and really appreciate McNally's work, one must watch any Callas documentary to hear her speak (the cadence of her sentences are masterfully captured), and read both Arianna Stassinopolous' Callas biography (the standard yet misinformed reading of her life) and Giovanni Battista Meneghini's MY WIFE MARIA CALLAS, written from a 12-year long inside perspective of the woman.
Rating:
Summary: Ho dato tutto a te.
Review: The spirit of Maria Callas propells this play. Certainly an homage from McNally to her, and for me a good introduction into her personality and place in theatre history. In a way this is a one-woman piece, with accompaniment, from student singers and a pianist, as Callas the character engages them and the audience in a ride on her spirit, in the guise of a Master Class. Because of the play I looked into Callas on the net and learned of her connection to Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy as well. This was new to me, and serves the play too, in trance like reminiscences where she speaks to Onassis and husband Battista Meneghini, as well as her audience(s).
Master Class is a powerful theatre piece, full of simple yet difficult truths about performing and a life in the theatre, about artists and giving ones life, heart and soul to your craft. She gave us everything, and with a load of bitterness and a load of love she comes alive in the place that she made and the place that made her.
Rating:
Summary: Wit, compassion, and flair all in one!
Review: This play is a true masterpiece. Whether Callas was actually as she is portrayed in this play makes little to no difference (it's called dramatic license). _Master Class_ offers one of the strongest characters ever created for the stage, a character who encompasses a large spectrum of emotion. Maria Callas is witty, funny, harsh, genius. She "has a look" that is truly brought to life within the pages of this play, but which refuses to be bound there!
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