"Absolute prima donna", "incomparable", "divine" - these are just some of the epithets that describe the mastery of Maria Callas, the great opera prima donna of the last century. "It's a star of stars, a queen, a ruler, a witch, a sorceress, a nightingale," admired the famous creator of the fashion empire, Saint Laurent. However, others called her a screw-up nightingale, a circus performer, a dilettante, a silent film actress... They said that she spoils the public's taste, turning respectable spectators into a gathering of fanatics, and the theater into a stadium or a bullring.
Callas did indeed break the tradition of beautiful singing, but for that very reason all other sopranos seemed to her admirers to be mere dull substitutes. Her greatest strength lay in her ability to reveal the dramatic essence of the character, to passionately experience the destinies of the most diverse heroes.
The life of the prima donna herself was both dramatic and fabulous, reminiscent of the transformation of the ugly duckling into a swan. The clumsy girl turned into a woman of irresistible beauty and charm, whose voice sounded on all the major opera stages of the world: Rome Opera, Milan's La Scala, London's Covent Garden, Paris' Grand Opera, Chicago's Lyric Opera, New York's Metropolitan Opera . However, this tale was accompanied by drama: conflicts with her unloving mother, a brutal professional struggle, marriage to a bricklayer owner who was 30 years her senior and exploited her talent, and finally her crazy and unhappy love for a Greek billionaire, which destroyed both this marriage and Callas herself.
American playwright Terrence McNally recreates the year 1972, when the singer conducted master classes at the famous Juilliard School in New York, in the play "The Mastery Lesson", awarded with the prestigious "Tony Award". Maria Callas is depicted in the sunset of her fame, having already lost her wonderful voice, but not the spiritual maximalism that she also demands from her students. In the memories that constantly flood her, we see both her previous triumph and the vicissitudes of her personal life. Breakthroughs of emotions, biting wit and flight to the sounds of music reveal the prima donna's talent, strength and vulnerability.
