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For soprano Mary Dunleavy, her “stylish,” “virtuosic,” “gleaming,” “supple,” voice has earned her a place among the opera notables of her generation.
“There have always been ‘fat lady’ singers,” she pointed out, “and really tiny singers – but it’s the overweight ones who seemed to get the stigma. Why didn’t singers like Rosa Ponselle, Mary Garden and Roberta Peters become the image of opera?” she asked. Good question.
By Paul Joseph Walkowski
OperaOnline.us
Mary Dunleavy’s first recollection of singing was as a youngster putting on shows around the house, entertaining adults with her sister Kathleen, to the amusement of her parents and friends who happened by.
She sang for the fun of it and her parents listened for the same reason. Others listened, too. But it was in the sixth grade when she sang the lead role in “Annie” that other parents approached hers and complimented their daughter for the lovely voice she had. It was enough of an encouragement for Mary’s parents, whom she says are “accidental opera fans,” to seek a professional opinion about their
Singing the part of Giulietta, "Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Dallas Opera. Photo: Karen Almond.
daughter’s talent. Because the school didn’t have a private voice coach they sought the assistance of a local piano/voice teacher by the name of Mildred Slater Evans, someone who would figure prominently in Mary Dunleavy’s early career.
The first attempt to show Ms. Evans what she could do, as she recalled recently in an interview with OperaOnline.us, was a rendition of Paul Anka’s “My Way,” a song made popular by Frank Sinatra. Whether Ms. Evans was impressed or not with the selection she heard or the manner of its delivery, she never said; she just shook her head, as Dunleavy recalled, and then began her instruction.
It’s funny how first impressions, like early friendships, seem to stick with us throughout our lives and evoke warm memories so long afterward. Dunleavy remembers Ms. Slater “as a warm woman” who “cared for me so much,” who, years later, not long before her death, had the opportunity to hear her young student sing at the Met. She was nearly blind when she sat and listened, and one can only imagine the pride she must have felt when she heard the voice. “She taught me through high school and even through college,” Dunleavy recalled, fondly, noting how gratified she was that her first voice coach of so many years had the chance to hear her perform with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
It was a road long traveled and a journey that held great promise. From grade school, on through Pascack Hills High in Montvale New Jersey, to Northwestern’s school of music, to the University of Texas in 1988, where she studied for her master's degree with Mignon Dunn, Mary Dunleavy never doubted what career she wanted to pursue, or how she should go about achieving it. She explained it this way: “When you’re a little kid, you’re so naïve and innocent, so dreaming of being a Broadway star doesn’t seem crazy at all. I went to so many shows as a kid and I really believed that I was good enough to do that. I think I just knew my voice was special. . . I never doubted for a moment that this was what I was meant to do.”
It was while at the University of Texas, Austin, that Dunleavy had her first, in what would eventually turn out to be, many encounters with the world of professional opera. She was offered the role of Frasquita, also in “Carmen,” with Austin Lyric Opera. Not a bad start, right? Maybe so, but only if you think success is a given where you follow the lucky road and all your dreams will come true. In real life, it may work out that way eventually for some, but not always, and it’s hardly ever a straight path. There are always detours. For while she may have known she wanted to be a singer and she definitely knew she had the voice for opera, and it didn’t hurt that her voice teachers from grade school to the university level, as well as fellow students thought she had talent, knowing what you want and achieving it are not always a sure bet. Nonetheless, she was good enough to sing in a professional opera while still a student and that said something. But as she is quick to point out, “I’ve lost far more competitions than I’ve won, been rejected in tons of competitions, and still have to prove myself to a lot of people.”
One story she recalled, in particular, is pretty apocryphal of the difficulties a young singer has to overcome on that winding road to success. “It’s a long, hard wonderful ride,” she pointed out, fraught with disappointments. “I remember when I went to Texas, Hal (her husband whom she met while in college) and I rented a U-Haul, dragged all our stuff down from Chicago, and thought that I’d be the belle-of-the-ball down in Austin. I’d sing all the leading roles, be the darling of the program. We got there and the first opera they’re doing is ‘Street Scene.’ I’m so certain that I’m perfect for the lead, or at least something really big and fun since
Singing the part of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Michigan Opera Theatre. Photo: Courtesy, Michigan Opera Theatre.
Singing the part of "Thais" with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Photo: Ken Howard.
And it’s not all just honor. There is a record here, too. The number of performances and roles she has mastered is complimented by the number and intensity of the reviews she has received. To list her accomplishments would be lengthy: 84 performances of Queen of the Night in “Die Zauberflote” with 11 companies; 41 performances of Violetta in “La Traviata” with 8 compa-nies; 23 performances of Gilda in “Rigoletto” with 5 companies; 16 performances of Norina in “Don Pasquale” with 2 companies – and the list goes on. Her performance reviews as provided by her press agent, Karen Kriendler Nelson, who makes sure feature writers know exactly how good her clients are, are impressive. Indeed, in this case, 21 pages of press reviews from every reviewer that ever ventured an opinion of a performance – all good. We’re talking “New York Times”, “Wall Street Journal,” “Newsday,” “Opera News,” “Financial Times,” stuff like that —and that’s just local press.
She has achieved the kind of success that even allows her to be selective in what she performs: she has retired her Queen of the Night, having performed
it’s such a huge cast. I ended up being Salvation Army gal #2, was on stage for about thirty-seconds, and we’re wondering if we can get our money back from U-Haul.” Times were tough. On another occasion she was selected to sing the part of Norina in “Don Pasquale” for Eugene Opera. She purchased the plane ticket and was ready to make the trip to begin rehearsals when the company folded. “They couldn’t even reimburse me for the plane ticket I bought.”
Of the early years, she said, “I was lucky that Hal had a real job in advertising in New York,” she recalled, noting, “like any young couple, we struggled,” adding that her parents, living in Hoboken, often received hungry house guests from New York with a pile of laundry. “Those days were hard in many ways,” she said, “but I still look back and think they were some of the best times of our married life.” In the early years she helped by taking part-time jobs “teaching people how to use different computer programs” while taking voice lessons and going to auditions. “I sang for everyone I could and entered every competition I could get into.” And that’s the way it went – for a while.
It was around 1991 or 92, as she recalled, that chance and good fortune stepped in. Her voice teacher Mignon Dunn called the Met on Dunleavy’s behalf and asked if they would just listen to her voice as a favor. Dunn wanted to solicit the Met’s advice about what repertoire her young protégé should focus on. Dunleavy went and sang – not an audition – she stressed, and left without hearing anything. Two months later she got the call; it was the Met; they wanted her to sing the role of a nymph in “Rusalka.” That’s how, she said, she “wiggled her way onto the Met roster.”
It’s not that it’s been easy ever since; rather it’s been more steady and sure.
Mary Dunleavy has arrived, big time; the world class singer has formed and matured and is at the top of her game. The lyric soprano who is as comfortable sitting in the bleaches cheering on the Texas Longhorns as she is stepping onto center stage at major opera houses, is now well settled and firmly established in a career that is worthy of respectful envy by those who hope to follow in her path. In 2006, for example, she was honored by both the University of Texas as their 2006 “Outstanding Young Texas Exes,” a nod to the George Straight country hit song, “All my ex’s live in Texas, that’s why I live in Tennessee,” and Dallas Opera as its “2006 Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year,” an award given by Dallas Opera audiences. That same year she was also interviewed in a feature piece for “Opera News.”
