Ben Apfelbaum

MASTERCLASS : A MASTERFUL MUGGLETON @ THE OPERA HOUSE

Production photography by Kate Ferguson.

Like the play  Diplomacy at the Ensemble Theatre, this play is based on true life events whilst using plenty of dramatic licence.

In 1971 operatic soprano Maria Callas gave a series of masterclasses at the Juilliard School in New York. Terrence McNally’s reimagines those classes with Callas seeming to appear as a roaring dragon about to consume her students. Maria Callas was named La Davina and it takes an acting diva to draw out the complex sides to this operatic giant.

In 1995 the play debuted on Broadway  with Australian Zoe Caldwell in the role of Maria Callas for which she won a Tony Award.

In Australia Amanda Muggleton has played the role of Maria Callas on and off for the last ten years. In 1998 she played Callas in Adelaide and Melbourne whilst in the same year Robyn Nevin played the role in Sydney and Brisbane.

In 2002 Muggleton won a Helpmann Award and Green Room award for Best Actress in a Play.

This latest incarnation is a London Kingshead Tours production sensitively directed by Adam Spreadbury at the Studio at Sydney Opera House.

After all these years Amanda Muggleton owns this role. She winds her way through the audience like a tornado criticising people for the way they look or the expression on their faces. This is dangerous territory for an actor but Amanda Muggleton ad-libs with complete creative control.

Like an ageing lioness who has lost her rank in the pride she recalls her glory days, her tempestuous and fiery relationship with the love of her life, Aristotle Onassis and her noble dismissal  from the La Scala Opera in Milan.

Least we focus too much on Amanda Muggleton’s physical appearance as Callas (which is easy to do), images of Maria Callas at her peak with Onassis, and as the stab in her heart Jackie Kennedy and Onassis appear on a giant screen at the back of the stage.

In case we forget or have never heard La Davina’s sublime vocal instrument a couple of old recordings of Maria Callas are played with Muggleton not attempting to lip sync with her but delivers credibly expressive gestures and emotions synonymous with Callas. Her relationship with her students requires Muggleton to scale a range of emotions from harsh, monstrous and terrifying to tender and at times apologetic. This great performance, nevertheless, has a marvellous tension where Callas is like an unexploded grenade, you never know when she will explode.

Muggeleton brings out Callas’ passion for her operatic roles, a sense of humour, and a genuine if misguided attempt to impart to her students her intense belief in the beauty of conveying a composer’s intent.

Mention must be made of the piano accompanist eighty four year old Dobbs Frank is a musical maestro equally home conducting symphony orchestras, opera, ballet, chamber ensembles, or choirs. He has conducted over fifty first performances including the premiere of Richard Meale’s opera Mer de Glace. Frank has worked with the likes of Leonard Bernstein including in 1961 was Musical Director for West Side Story.

The three hapless students whose timidity is a foil to Callas’s ferocity are sensitively played by members of Opera Australia; Kala Gare, Jessica Boyd and Tomas Dalton.

Although Callas barely gives them a chance to sing what they have prepared in a coda to play, when Amanda Muggleton steps out of her role and introduced the supporting cast members they are each allowed to give full voice to their operatic talents.

I must make mention of the fact that when the students  are attempting to recite their prepared roles, the themes in the operas mirror Callas’s life; unrequited love, loss and betrayal. When Muggleton demonstrates to the students how these arias should be sung, you can see how Callas passionately put her heart and soul into her performances.

This ia a divine performance by Amanda Muggleton as La Davina. MASTERCLASS continues at the Studio,, Sydney Opera House until the 8th April.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.