Sat 4/6 @ 7:30PM
Maria Callas was more than just a legendary opera singer: she was a star, a celebrity, a public personality and a diva in the truest sense of the word, well known to people who never heard her sing a note and idolized by those who had. Her romances (most famously losing Aristotle Onassis to Jacqueline Kennedy), her illness, her unreliability, her demanding behavior and the variable quality of her voice made headlines alongside glowing reviews. She perfomed her last opera at the age of 41, an age when many opera singers are just coming into their prime. After a tempestuous life, she died way too young, at the age of 53, in 1977.
In 1971 and 1972, she did a series of master classes at the Juilliard School, which playwright Terence McNally used to as raw material for his 1995 play Master Class. Now Cleveland’s WordStage theater is tackling the same material in a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Callas’ birth, in a show based on the transcripts of those classes. It features WordStage company member Leslie Stager, as she enacts Callas talking about her life and her musical career, enhanced by rare videos of Callas performing.
The show takes place at Lakewood Presbyterian Church’s Wright Chapel. Go here for tickets or call 440-857-0717.
Lakewood, OH 44107