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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.
performed it over 84 times (“It is a real high-wire act every night, and it gets very tedious. It’s less than ten minutes of stage time in a three-hour opera – and on top of that, it’s all about five notes.”); she cherishes the roles she still enjoys, like Violetta (“I love the dramatic path she takes, the libretto is beautiful and real, and of course the music is divine.”); and covets the role of Manon. (“Anyone who knows my career just a little bit is aware that my dream role is Manon. It seems like a great fit for me musically and dramatically.”)
Even with all this success, she says, a singer still has to continuously prove himself or hersel, not just to those who make the decision to hire, but with the audience as well — for the bottom line is: audience reaction is palpable, and companies know when a singer is hot and connects with the audience and when they don’t – and it’s not just through reviews. If you want to make it big in the opera business – as anywhere else – you have to have the right mixture of voice and chemistry that succeeds on both levels.
To reach that happy balance, is not always easy – especially if you’re a woman and the image you constantly have to battle is that of the “fat lady” (Valkyries) with horns, which incidentally, is probably the most realistic time when the proverbial “fat lady” is entirely appropriate to the role. Anyway, for Dunleavy, awareness of this sometimes awkward balance is acute. “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.
According to Dunleavy, “it certainly helps to play young ingénues and teenagers if you’re slim, but in the end, the voice is always first. If you’re in good shape as well, that’s great, but it’s nothing without a great voice.” Not all agree, at least not entirely, and some, like Deborah Voigt, have made a clearer connection between the roles they sing and the way they look when cast in those roles. Natalie Dessay, for another, has said that voice is about 30% of a performance while 70% is anchored in presentation and acting – of course, the latter view may be influenced by the fact that Dessay started out as an actress. Still, there is no subject more controversial or debated in the opera world today than fitness and image – and the debate still rages.
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“I’m all for the director taking a new look at an old opera. But I have a problem when things don’t make sense, or when you need a long supplement to the Playbill to explain the Director’s vision.” When a director sets out to create a new vision, she said, “it should be a two-way street between the production team and the performers. It doesn’t always work out that way, though, and I think everyone suffers, especially the audience.”
Dunleavy is more philosophical about the issue than others. “There are great singers who do not give particularly good presentations, and yet they’re still successful. There are other singers who are great performers, but maybe their voices aren’t the absolute best. Ideally, the voice should be matched by presentation, charisma and stage persona. There are a lot of different ways of being successful in this business,” she added, “and the mix of those qualities is different.”
Dunleavy acknowledges that the “fat lady” issue is relevant, but how important it is to opera is something she disputes, noting that even though audiences change their preferences about image, “with opera going up on simulcasts, there might be more pressure for singers to be thinner or prettier. I hope not. There are many people who complain that this (emphasis on looks) will be the death of great singing, and I can understand their concern.”
And it’s not just voice and image a singer must confront, there is also the problem of self-absorbed directors and composers – a subject many shy away from, at least publicly. On the latter Dunleavy is forthright: “There’s no doubt,” she said, “that we need new compositions to keep the art form progressing. What I don’t understand is why so few composers know how to write for the voice. We’ve all heard amazing new music in movies and on Broadway, so it’s possible for opera as well.”
On the former, she is even more direct: “I’m all for the director taking a new look at an old opera. But I have a problem when things don’t make sense, or when you need a long supplement to the Playbill to explain the Director’s vision.” When a director sets out to create a new vision, she said, “it should be a two-way street between the production team and the performers. It doesn’t always work out that way, though, and I think everyone suffers, especially the audience.”
Controversy, however, isn’t the focus of Dunleavy’s life, nor does it occupy a chunk of her singing career. For the most part, it’s all about the next show and getting ready for it and arranging time to be with her family. “My husband and I joke around that my family is getting a little jaded with my life – like my nephews; they’ve been coming to the opera since they were little boys, and now it’s like, ‘another night seeing Aunt Mary at the Met?’” It’s a ‘tough crowd,’” she muses. Still it’s surrounding oneself with people you know and trust that gives one emotional stability. “When I’m out on stage,” she concluded, “I am out there on my own, but I take people who I love and trust out there with me – and have fun. We only get a certain number of nights in the theater, so enjoy them all to the fullest.”
