Master Class stars Amanda Muggleton as Maria Callas at the Playhouse

It is 1972 and the legendary Greek-American soprano, Maria Callas, is conducting a voice master class at New York's prestigious Juillard Performing Arts School. Accompanied by Manny Weinstock (Dobbs Franks), middle-aged Callas (Amanda Muggleton) coaxes, berates and derides aspiring opera singers, tenor Tony Candolino (Tomas Dalton) and sopranos Sophie de Palma (Kala Gare) and Sharon Gardner (Jessica Boyd). Under Callas' critical eye and occasional demonstration or remonstration, the students struggle to impress with arias from Bellini's La Sonnambula, Puccini's Tosca or Verdi's Macbetto.

Playwright Terrence McNally weaves a fictional, yet carefully researched drama, seamlessly intertwining scenes of nervous victims subjected to bel canto diva Callas' intimidating instruction with introspective musings by Callas and her recollections of personal pain and glory, triumph and tribulation.

With eruptive and powerful, moving force, Muggleton theatrically captures in moments of spot-lit soliloquy reflections on Callas' unhappy childhood, poor self-image, and her volatile love affair with vulgar tycoon Aristotle Onassis. The recording of Callas in her operatic prime soars through the theatre, a poignant soundtrack to the private and intensely personal confessions of the ageing diva.

Throughout, Muggleton bestrides the stage like the colossal actor that she is. Muggleton is La Divina. She is already the recipient of a Helpmann Award for her acclaimed performance in an earlier production of Master Class. I have not seen a prior production, but it is obvious that director Adam Spreadbury-Maher's reinvention of McNally's riveting drama breathes new life into the play. The production is powered by emotion, soaring with passion from Callas, rippling with anxious expectation from the three students and maintaining honest attention to the score by Weinstock.

Spreadbury-Maher observes the conventions of a master class in his precise and purposeful direction. Callas enters through the auditorium, interacting with unsuspecting audience members and describing the qualities of her art directly to the audience, who are cast in the role of Juillard students.

McNally's Master Class is a lesson to all artists. Listen to the music. Follow the composer, dominate the audience. Possess discipline, technique and courage. It is advice equally relevant to the actor, the dancer, the artist and the singer. Callas is the conduit for an observance of the artist's inalienable role within society. Muggleton's captivating performance, electric, vulnerable, funny, and human in its ambition and its frailty brings to life the divine legend of the operatic stage. It also reminds us of the sacrifices that artists must make for the gift that they are given.

The spirit of Callas shines as emerging opera singers, Gare, Boyd and Dalton are urged forward by Muggleton to enchant the audience at the end of the performance with arias by Puccini, Donizetti and Mozart. Performers and audience commune in a superbly performed and unforgettable production that instructs us all in art and sacrifice.