Tony-winning 'Master Class' puts Maria Callas on Manila stage this May
The Philippine Opera Company (POC) will close its current season with a loud, dramatic bang: Terrence McNally’s Tony-winning play, 'Master Class', starring Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo.
Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo is Maria Callas.
The Philippine Opera Company (POC)
The Philippine Opera Company (POC) will close its current season—which kicked off in November 2025—with a loud, dramatic bang.
This May, the company mounts Terrence McNally’s Tony-winning juggernaut, Master Class, as the grand finale of its 25th anniversary.
Theater royalty Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo steps into the formidable shoes of Maria Callas, the icon known as "La Divina." Callas possessed a voice like a force of nature and a private life that served as a blueprint for tabloid tragedy. Directed by Jaime del Mundo, this production aims to prove that opera remains the most sharp-edged game in town.
The diva’s dictum
The play drops us into a rehearsal hall at Juilliard in the early '70s. A fading Callas trades the world’s great stages for a lectern, but do not expect a polite syllabus.
Callas treats her students as psychological springboards, spiraling into "interior monologues" that revisit her glory days at La Scala—the 18th-century Milanese cathedral of opera that acts as the ultimate litmus test for any serious vocalist. Between technical critiques, she relives her triumphs in Italy and her crushing public rejection by billionaire Aristotle Onassis.
The ensemble tasked to survive her scrutiny includes Alexandra Bernas as the scrutinized Sophie de Palma, Arman Ferrer as the bravado-heavy tenor Tony Candolino, and Angeli Benipayo as Sharon Graham, the student brave enough to fire back. They receive support from Louie Angelo Ocaas the accompanist Manny Weinstock and Nelsito Gomez as the stagehand.
Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo is Maria Callas.
Paw Castillo
Not a biography
McNally—the late "Bard of American Theater"—drew from the 23 actual sessions Callas held at Juilliard. But the play is a fictionalized work rather than a strict biography. He heightened aspects of her “tigress” persona for dramatic effect.
Director Jaime del Mundo addressed this distinction at a press conference at Opera Haus, noting the heart of the play lies in its obsession with the craft.
“What Master Class is really about, because it's not a documentary. Don't get the impression that it's a documentary. It's not,” said Del Mundo at a press conference on 21 April at Opera Haus.
“Master Class is about love….about passion. Master Class is about the desire to communicate to the younger generation of singers from the experience of the older generation of singers, beliefs. And what makes art work is trying to get to the younger generation and say art is beautiful, art is necessary,” he added.
