Fast Chat: Tyne Daly portrays Maria Callas

Tyne Daly didn't think she was right to play Maria Callas, the legendary, controversial opera soprano. But when Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally says you're the one, well, it's hard to say no.

So Daly is stepping into the diva's shoes for the Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of "Master Class," a drama with lotsa laughs (and a few arias) opening Thursday at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Callas revolutionized the opera world in the late 1940s and '50s by being an agile vocalist -- and actually daring to act onstage instead of doing what had become the usual "park and bark" routine. She became a world sensation and cavorted with mogul Aristotle Onassis (even after he married Jacqueline Kennedy). The play takes place after her voice and love affair with Ari (who treated her like dirt, according to McNally) had burned out.

Daly won four Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Det. Mary Beth Lacey on "Cagney and Lacey" in the 1980s, another Emmy playing social worker Maxine Gray on "Judging Amy," and a Tony Award for her role as Mama Rose in the 1989 Broadway revival of "Gypsy." She took time out before a rehearsal to chat with Newsday contributor Joseph V. Amodio about music, motherhood . . . and grandchildren.

So one of your three daughters was just in town?

For a high school reunion. And to see the show. And I haven't seen the baby, my granddaughter, in a while. I just said goodbye, which is always difficult.

How old is your granddaughter?

My first granddaughter is 17. My grandson is 14 -- he just made it through middle school, which I think is a harrowing experience. But my newest granddaughter, Miss Poppy, is 13 months. I actually was on the birthing team, so it was very exciting.

Wow. Have you witnessed the birth of the other grandkids?

Oh, yeah! Two were at home -- one at my house. I'm an old hippie, so we like to be there when the mysteries are happening.

You're often cast as strong moms -- Mama Rose, Maxine Gray, Mary Beth Lacey. Do you ooze a maternal vibe in front of casting directors or what?

[She laughs.] I don't know. I had my astrological chart done, and my chart contains zero Earth. None. Yet I've often been cast -- from youngest childhood -- as the earth mother. I played the mother when I was 11 at the local, neighborhood amateur theater, Antrim Players, which I think is still going on in Nyack. I played an ingenue in "HMS Pinafore" the year before -- that's probably the last time I played an ingenue.

And now Maria Callas.

She never had a child. And she considered her own mother an enemy, which is really sad.

How familiar were you with opera?

I didn't go to the opera much until I move backed to New York City recently. I hadn't been on vacation in a long time, so I bought myself a package to Italy -- four cities with 11 operas in 10 days. Very intensive. I went to La Scala, Verona, the home of Verdi.

Why the sudden opera bug?

I guess music has always been a big thing for me. More than visual art. Standing in back of the theater and hearing Jule Styne's overture for "Gypsy" is one of the most fulfilling. . . . Well, when you hear music, it takes you.

You pop out quite a high note in Act 2 -- is it an "F?"

[She laughs again.] Don't tell me the name of it, or I'll lose my nerve.

How much did you study Callas?

I'm not attempting to do an impression. I mostly read books, listened to the music. I wasn't too aware of her when she was a big celebrity. I became aware of Aristotle Onassis when he married Jackie Kennedy. I've come to know that Maria and Ari were very much like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in their attraction of the paparazzi. They lived that kind of celebrity that . . . not everybody lived then. Today, if you have a reality TV show, you have people chasing you down the street.

And most of them are so boring.

But there was a time when that was quite a rare experience, and a terrifying one. So my empathy for her has grown. I think she was an extraordinary artist and musician who just threw her . . . whole . . . self . . . into the vortex. What's not to admire? She was also sad, lonely, difficult, unbending. You can make a pros and cons list, but in the end you have to find more pros in order to play a person. I had a very wise director once in Los Angeles who said, "Would you quit judging this character and just play her?" Ha! Pretty good, huh?