Review: MASTER CLASS at Das Vindobona

December 02, 2023, would be the 100th birthday of the world's greatest opera singer, Maria Callas. What a great reason to bring back Arie Zingers Volkstheater's production from 1997 with Andrea Eckert, recreating her critically acclaimed performance, now at the stage of Wolfgang Ebner's Vindobona for a strictly limited run.

Terrence McNally has written a plot about a fictional Master class held by the opera diva, a stirring piece about Callas, her triumphs, her relationship, and all the struggles and sacrifices a world career gives you without asking for.

In the fictional Master class, the opera diva is bewildered and thrilled by her students, but for them, it's obviously challenging to fulfill the diva's requirements. Eckert has taken Opening Night's audience right from the beginning, filling the room with her larger-than-life presence. Eckert is teaching in an ironically funny divaish art.

Callas is drifting apart from tutoring into her younger life, bringing the spot into some of her darkest corners in the past. Eckert is profoundly honest in every minute, a heartbreakingly stunning performance ending in a Callasesque neverending Standing Ovations.

As an audience member, you got caught by the diva, afraid to chuckle or breathe because of her attendance. Das Vindobona gifted us with a top-class theatre experience, having the glorious Andrea Eckert back as Maria Callas for a (sadly) strictly limited run.

 Ensemble:
 Claudia Camie -  Sophie De Palma
 Teresa Gardner - Sharon Graham
 Pablo Cameselle -  Anthony Candolino
 Daniel Große Boymann - Emmanuel Weinstock
 Oliver Mülich -  Stagehand

The rare changes to enjoy the play are on October 20., 21., 22., November 04., 12., 17., 18., 19. and December 02 (Maria Callas's 100th birthday)

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