Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo performs an excerpt from ‘Master Class ‘ at the press conference. Written by Terence McNally, the play presents a glimpse into the colorful life of the legendary opera star.
Looking so lithe and at least 15 years younger than her actual age (she’s in her early 60s), Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo can probably still play Mary Poppins. But she’s going the opposite route; she’s been cast as Maria Callas in an upcoming production of Terence McNally’s acclaimed play Master Class, staged by the Philippine Opera Company (POC) as its 25th anniversary presentation.
An accomplished actress since she was in her teens, Menchu is rightly hailed as the country’s first lady of Philippine theater. She’s also branched out to directing and has proven herself to be first rate in mounting plays and musicals. Thus when POC founder Karla Guriterrez approached her about staging Master Class, Menchu assumed Karla wanted her to direct it. “We were both backstage at the Gawad Buhay Awards night when she brought it up to me. To my surprise, she wanted me to play Maria Callas,” said Menchu.
She’s seen previous productions of Master Class and she knew the part would be a huge challenge. “The script would require me to memorize mega lines! One scene ends with a three-page monologue!” she exclaimed. “Can I still memorize this? I remember when Cherie (Gil) played it. She was panicking. It’s one monologue after another. And then I have to learn the Italian words. So I had to think really hard. But then, I‘ll be turning 63 this year. If I don’t do it now, when?”
The play is a fictionalized version of the master class Maria Callas conducted in New York during the early 1970s. The role is perhaps the Hamlet of dramatic actresses. Zoe Caldwell won a Tony Award for originating the role. Patti Lupone, Faye Dunaway, Cherie Gil, and Baby Barredo have played the part.
Menchu explains why doing the play is an ultimate test for actresses. “In this interpretation, what Terence McNally does is, we go into the head of Maria Callas and we find out what she had gone through. This is the theatrical part of the play. We get a glimpse of the real Callas, the insecure Callas.”
She cites a difficult scene in which Callas would pause during class and remember her past: her triumphs and the romance with Aristotle Onassis. In her mind, she’d recall the conversations they had. It plays like a hallucination. The actress playing Callas, however, has to deliver both the lines of the two lovers. In the flashbacks, Callas is a vulnerable victim, constantly berated by Onassis. When she returns to focus on the class, she’s again the intimidating mentor. The shift is sudden, the change in emotion radical. “It’s a Jekyll and Hyde role. The shift is very difficult,” Menchu declares.
She was on Jekyll and Hyde mode when she and the rest of the cast performed an excerpt from the play for the press conference. I had a brief chat with her before the start of the media conference. She was as gracious as anyone can get. So genial was she I couldn’t imagine her as the imperious star Callas reportedly was. Yet as soon she entered the stage, she turned into the fiery prima donna. The chosen excerpt is one of the play’s “lighter” moments. It’s when Callas is selecting the master class participants and rejecting aspirants lacking the “look” of an opera performer. In terms of nonchalance and cruelty, Callas could give Miranda Priestley a run for the money.
According to Menchu, that nonchalance was well-earned. “Callas claimed she had no rivals because no one could do what she could do. She could star in an opera in the afternoon and perform in a different one later that night. No one else could do that. She also earlier didn’t have the look because she was overweight and unattractive. When she saw Audrey Hepburn she wanted to be like Audrey Hepburn. She emulated her. She would dress like her. She went on a crash diet and achieved a glamorous look,” she said.
Furthermore, Callas imitated Hepburn’s facial expressions, and the way she bowed to her audience. Watching her concerts on YouTube, the opera star is gracious and feminine. It was an effective way to soften her formidable reputation.
Menchu’s favorite quote from the play: ‘The theater is not about trying. People do not leave their homes just to see us try. They come to see us do.’
Menchu easily won us over when she went into character. As Callas, she bullied the members of her class played by Arman Ferrer, Angeli Benipayo, Alexandra Bernas, and also Louie Angelo Oca as the piano accompanist. My silly doubts about her casting were unfounded since she did play Eva Peron, the villainess Ms. Hannigan in Annie, and the Marias of West Side Story and The Sound of Music.
Menchu is first to admit that prior to accepting the part, she knew Maria Callas only by name. “To be honest, I’m not an opera person,” she told thediarist.ph.
“I know her by her reputation. I know some but not a lot. I’m not like (director) Jaime del Mundo and Arman Ferrer who know their opera, I don’t. So I knew of her, but it was only when I knew I would be playing her and did my research that I started to learn about this magnificent woman—what she represented, and what she went through during World War II, when she was living in poverty. And about her romance with Onassis who left her when he married Jacqueline Kennedy. The funny thing about Callas is she was scared—scared that everyone was out to get her. Apparently, it was a dog-eat-dog situation in the opera world. She was scared to perform because she felt everyone want to see her fail,” she said.
Maria Callas berates a student during the class: Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and Alexandra Bernas
Unlike Maria Callas, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo isn’t a drama queen. Neither is she a temperamental director. But she did have several very close encounters with real-life divas Bibot Amador and Baby Barredo. “My gosh! I’ve had a score thrown at me, a table thrown at me. You just learn how to duck,” she said while laughing. “With Repertory Philippines, we were not allowed to make mistakes.”
When she started directing, Menchu vowed she’d never scream at her actors. “With Bibot and Baby, it wasn’t always about the craft of the actors. We just did what they wanted because magagalit sila if we didn’t. We learned later on that it is about the craft. As a director, I’m very nurturing. But I don’t believe in the phrase puede na yan,” she said.
“But you have to understand that when Bibot and Baby put up Repertory, they were doing 10 plays a year. So they had to at one point scream because if everybody had a bahala na attitude, we won’t be able to put the next show up. Sometimes I do go crazy when the set is not ready. And I’d say to myself, ‘No wonder Bibot used to scream.’”
Menchu chose Jaime del Mundo to direct her in Master Class. She says they go a long way back. She chose him because of his knowledge of opera and they have a good relationship. She says they’d sometimes have a few disagreements. “I’d argue with Jaime. He’d make me do a scene in a certain way and I’d say it doesn’t work that way. Let me try it this way. I’d ask him what a certain line is about and he’d explain it and I would disagree. I’d change some of the blocking and he’d also convince me that he‘s right. It’s hard when you’re both directors. But we have a high respect for each other. The goal here is to come up with the best show,” she said.
Before saying our goodbyes, I asked her what show would she like to direct or star in next. Her answer: Gypsy, the musical about legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her overbearing stage mother Mama Rose, two juicy roles every female Broadway star is itching to play. It’s that very musical I’d been pestering other theater directors to stage. The show is a hard sell, Menchu admits. Nevertheless, in championing Gypsy, it felt terrific to know that I have an in influential theater ally in Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo.
‘Master Class’ runs until May 30 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium of RCBC Plaza, Makati, with performances scheduled from Friday to Sunday, including matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Ticket prices are P4,000 (Orchestra Center Premium), P3,800 (Orchestra Center and Loge Center), P3,700 (Orchestra Side), P3,500 (Orchestra Side Zone 2 and Loge Side), and P2,300 (Balcony), available via Ticket2Me.
