Master Class

When the Philadelphia Theatre Company agreed to produce Master Class early in 1995, Sara Garonzik, the company's producing director, knew the play would get a lot of attention and have a big future. Just how much attention the show would get and how big that future would be, Garonzik discovered Sunday night. She sat in the audience at the 50th Tony Award ceremony in New York as the production her company had premiered won three of theater's most prestigious awards - best play for author Terrence McNally, best actress for Zoe Caldwell, and best featured actress (the Tonys' phrase for supporting actress)

When Misha Dichter sits down with Temple University piano students Sunday for an open master class, it will be with the knowledge that he might change someone's life. It was a master class, after all, that altered his forever. "It was 1964," recalled the New Yorker this week, "when Rosina Lhevinne came out to Los Angeles from New York to do a master class. I was studying with Aube Tzerko, an Artur Schnabel pupil, who was one of these Middle Europeans - you know, very German.

Master classes for opera singers traditionally have been ruled by those who can't do it anymore. Maria Callas, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and other greats in the twilight of their careers have alternately inspired and terrified voice students who had the courage to present their best aria onstage and then be told in front of a sizable audience how far short of perfection they fell. At 43, Philadelphia mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, in contrast, is in the early-summer phase of her career, which may be why her Tuesday master class at her alma mater, Temple University, was fun, smart and sisterly.

She did it all for love. In a nutshell, that's the irony, agony and ecstasy of opera legend Maria Callas' life, as brought to us by Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning "Master Class. " Playing the Merriam Theater until Sunday, this national touring production features film star Faye Dunaway as the diva people loved to hate. "Master Class" is an engrossing portrait of a woman consumed by both her art and her search for love, vindication and personal validation. The device that McNally uses to reveal her emotional pain and professional sacrifice is a fictionalized Juilliard master class that Callas taught in the waning days of her career.

This week, when the Philadelphia Theatre Company begins the world-premiere run of Terrence McNally's new play, Master Class, the Plays & Players Theatre will be transformed into . . . a theater. Is it the theatrical setting for a world-famous but faded diva, about to coach young singers? Or is it an operating theater, where nerves, and even souls, are exposed by the knife of memory? That's an ambiguity that McNally will use to share his understanding of soprano Maria Callas, tumult and all, with his audience.

Soon after meeting opera diva Marilyn Horne before his big performance, Justin D. Gonzalez told her to spare him nothing. "Tear me to shreds. Do me the honor," the 17-year-old Philadelphia high school senior invited before taking the stage Tuesday night at the Academy of Vocal Arts for his "master class" performance. "If I do, I'll do it with a velvet glove," promised the international star. She did, with comments that were exquisitely honest yet encouraging and uplifting.

There's a Bruce Springsteen quote on the wall of the National Constitution Center, currently housing an exhibit called "From Asbury Park to the Promised Land. " It reads: "The American idea is a beautiful idea. It needs to be preserved, served, protected and sung out. Sung out. " Four miles south at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night, Springsteen went to work, putting enthusiastic emphasis on those final words. The nearly three-hour show was - remarkably, considering the gravity of the State of the Union subject matter on his defiant new album Wrecking Ball, and the fact that the guy is now 62 years old - every bit the ecstatic revival meeting and master class in rock-and-soul catharsis that Springsteen's ardent fans have come to expect over the course of a 40-year career.

Dick Clark, who died Wednesday at 82 of a heart attack, has been cremated, rep Paul Shefrin tells USA Today. Entertainment Tonight reports the ashes will be scattered in the Pacific Ocean, but Shefrin says Clark's family had not yet decided what to do with them. Plans for a public memorial hadn't been finalized. Simon Cowell: Not gay Simon Cowell, whose sexuality has been the subject of not a few gossip items, tells biographer Tom Bower in a new book he is straight.

Jazz trombonist and composer Delfeayo Marsalis joined top high school musicians in the area for a jam session and jazz music lesson Friday at Abraham Lincoln High School in Northeast Philadelphia. About 125 music students from five high schools and 20 students from the All Philadelphia High School Jazz Ensemble were invited to take part in the master class. The event was sponsored by Bravo, the film and arts network, and Comcast Cable.

Dancers sweat and work hard to make what they do look easy. Having a pro like Maurice Hines in the studio to share his talents ought to go a long way to inspire aspiring performers like this group of advanced jazz dance students at The University of the Arts on South Broad Street, where Hines conducted a master class yesterday. Hines himself began hoofing at age 5. He's starring with Stephanie Mills in "Harlem Suite," a dance musical he choreographed and directs. The show goes on national tour after its final performance Sunday at the Shubert Theatre.

Dick Clark, who died Wednesday at 82 of a heart attack, has been cremated, rep Paul Shefrin tells USA Today. Entertainment Tonight reports the ashes will be scattered in the Pacific Ocean, but Shefrin says Clark's family had not yet decided what to do with them. Plans for a public memorial hadn't been finalized. Simon Cowell: Not gay Simon Cowell, whose sexuality has been the subject of not a few gossip items, tells biographer Tom Bower in a new book he is straight.

There's a Bruce Springsteen quote on the wall of the National Constitution Center, currently housing an exhibit called "From Asbury Park to the Promised Land. " It reads: "The American idea is a beautiful idea. It needs to be preserved, served, protected and sung out. Sung out. " Four miles south at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night, Springsteen went to work, putting enthusiastic emphasis on those final words. The nearly three-hour show was - remarkably, considering the gravity of the State of the Union subject matter on his defiant new album Wrecking Ball, and the fact that the guy is now 62 years old - every bit the ecstatic revival meeting and master class in rock-and-soul catharsis that Springsteen's ardent fans have come to expect over the course of a 40-year career.

Rosanne Cash started writing songs when she was the same age as many of the high school students she taught Wednesday morning in a master class on songwriting. "I was 18," the 56-year-old singer told about 40 aspiring musicians and writers who gathered in a recital hall flooded with winter sunlight at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. "And they were bad songs. Really bad. " That couldn't be said for the songs that Cash sang at SCH Academy, such as her 1981 country hit "Seven Year Ache," which she wrote when she was 23, or "Black Cadillac," composed in 2003 after the death of her father, country giant Johnny Cash.

3-month and 6-month bills , July 18; 4-week bills , July 19; 1-year bills , July 25; 2-year notes , July 26; 5-year notes , July 27; 3-year notes , Aug. 9; 7-year notes, July 28; 10-year TIPS , July 21; 30-year TIPS , Oct. 20; 5-year TIPS , Aug. 18. Business Referral Luncheon presented by BNI, King of Prussia Chapter. Peppers restaurant, 236 Town Center Rd., King of Prussia; 610-792-2105. Reservations required. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Networking Meeting presented by BNI, Fort Washington Chapter.

Maybe they miss the Sausage Race The Milwaukee Brewers are a different team outside of Miller Park. On Thursday, they lost, 5-0, to the New York Yankees in the Bronx - their eighth loss in their last ten road games - and dropped to 15-27 away from home, a major-league worst (wurst?). When surrounded by Cheeseheads, the Brew Crew is 29-11. Perhaps Bernie Brewer should drop by Minnesota when Milwaukee starts a three-game series there against the Twins on Friday.   Old school The slumbering bats of the Marlins woke up a bit on Wednesday as Hanley Ramirez and Logan Morrison homered to lead Florida past the Athletics, 3-0, in Oakland, the first long balls for the team after an eight-day power outage.

Star turn The Philadelphia Theatre Company celebrated its 35th anniversary June 6 at the Hyatt at the Bellevue, with an all-star lineup of performances by Kathleen Turner; Tyne Daly, star of the Broadway revival of Terrence McNally's Master Class ; McNally himself; Quentin Earl Darrington, star of the recent revival of Ragtime ; Jennie Eisenhower; and John Glover. It was announced that the theater had established the Terrence McNally New Play Award to be presented annually beginning next year.

THOUGH ITS programming so far has been more infomercial than innovative, early reviews have been warm for the Oprah Winfrey Network, which debuted over the weekend. Just check your cynicism at the door, please. OWN (as in yours, ours or all that she surveys?), replaces the Discovery Health Channel. If you're a Comcast subscriber in Philadelphia, you're likely to find it on Channel 182. We aren't promising anything - this is cable TV, people! If you can't find it, check your TV directory or go to www.oprah.

Golf (1 p.m., TNT) - The year's final major, the PGA Championship, takes place along the shore of Lake Michigan at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, and other top players will try to win the Wanamaker Trophy and end the season on a high note. Last year's PGA Championship was a stunner, with unheralded Y.E. Yang of South Korea outplaying Tiger Woods in the final round for a three-stroke victory. The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10)

They referred to the renowned opera soprano Maria Callas as La Divina, and awarded her with curtain calls galore - at one point, 27. So as a moniker, La Divina is already taken. No problem. You can call Ann Crumb, simply, Divine. Crumb plays the opera singer in Media Theatre's production of Master Class, in a portrayal so deft, so remarkably considered, she must be channeling La Divina, who died in 1977. Crumb's every move is sensual and in character - each step across the Media stage, each sweep of her arms, each turn of her head.

Was it modern jazz? Or the soundtrack to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad? The undulating melody issuing - however haltingly - yesterday afternoon from the 15 teens in the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble was unmistakable. Even familiar. It was the snake charmers' melody familiar from old action movies. Snake charmers? Sinbad? And a jazz band? The scene at the Kimmel Center's cramped Education Center on South Broad Street began to make sense when the ensemble's director, Marc Johnson, handed the baton to the guest of honor, Simon Shaheen.