Master Class opens May 15 with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo for Philippine Opera Company

-
Master Class opens May 15 with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo for Philippine Opera Company

Manila theater in 2026 is not short on spectacle, but productions that interrogate what it actually takes to be great are rare. The Philippine Opera Company's revival of Master Class does exactly that.

Terrence McNally's Master Class, starring Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and directed by Jaime del Mundo, opens May 15, 2026 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza, Makati City, as part of the Philippine Opera Company's 25th anniversary season.

Event Details:
Venue: Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City
Opening: May 15, 2026
Show Dates: May 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 2026
Ticket Prices: PHP 2,300 to PHP 4,000
Tickets: Available via Ticket2Me

Starring Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as Maria Callas and directed by Jaime del Mundo, this production anchors the Company's anniversary season with a work that refuses distance. Philippine Opera Company presents Master Class as both tribute and confrontation, placing one of opera's most formidable figures at the center of a story about discipline, sacrifice, and the cost of artistic permanence.

Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo in Master Class by Philippine Opera Company

Philippine Opera Company at 25 years

The Philippine Opera Company remains the country's only professional opera company consistently producing opera and classical music performances. Since its founding in 1999 by soprano Karla Patricia T. Gutierrez, it has worked against the idea that opera belongs only to a select few.

Instead of preserving distance, POC has consistently collapsed it. Performances move through malls, schools, churches, and community spaces, placing opera in direct conversation with everyday audiences.

What emerges is not a diluted form, but a sharper one. Opera that holds its rigor while becoming undeniably present in Filipino cultural life.

Master Class returns as a defining work

Originally staged by POC in 2010, Master Class returns as part of its anniversary season from November 2025 to November 2026.

Written by Terrence McNally, the play draws from Maria Callas's real-life masterclasses at Juilliard. But what it presents is not a documentary. It is something more exacting.

A room where technique is exposed, where ego is dismantled, and where the illusion of effortlessness is stripped away to reveal the cost underneath.

Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as Maria Callas

Taking on Maria Callas is Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, a performer whose career has been built on precision, longevity, and emotional clarity.

This is not a role that can be performed at a distance. It requires inhabiting the contradictions of Callas. The authority, the fragility, and the refusal to accept anything less than complete artistic surrender.

Direction by Jaime del Mundo

Jaime del Mundo approaches Master Class with the weight of decades spent across opera, theater, and musical staging.

The play becomes less about performance and more about confrontation. Between teacher and student. Between aspiration and reality.

Why Master Class matters now

This is not a comfortable tribute. It interrogates greatness itself.

At a time when visibility is often mistaken for mastery, this play insists on something else entirely. Discipline. Endurance. The willingness to be dismantled in pursuit of something better.

Master Class tickets, venue, and schedule

Master Class runs on May 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, and 30, 2026 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza, Makati City.

Address: 4th Floor, Tower II, RCBC Plaza, 6819 Ayala Avenue, Makati City 1200, Philippines

Ticket prices: PHP 2,300 to PHP 4,000, depending on seating section.

Book online: Ticket2Me Master Class Manila 2026

Related reading from Unsaulicited

For a broader view of current stage, concert, venue, and live performance coverage, start with the Manila Theater Guide on Unsaulicited.