Mary Dunleavy (born 1966) is an American soprano who has performed with major opera companies and orchestras around the world.
Life and career
Dunleavy grew up in
Montvale, New Jersey
Montvale is a borough in northern Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, bordering the state of New York. The borough is part of the New York City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 8 ...
[Shengold, David]
"Focused on Her Game; OCP favorite Mary Dunleavy tackles a new Mozart role."
, ''Philadelphia City Paper
''Philadelphia City Paper'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The independently owned paper was free and published every Thursday in print and daily online at citypaper.net. Staff reporters focused on labor issues ...
'', May 4–10, 2006. Accessed December 11, 2013. "'Philadelphia feels like my second home,' smiles Mary Dunleavy over lunch in Bella Vista. The attractive, engaging soprano is a Jersey girl: She grew up in Montvale and now (aptly enough for one who has both Bellini's and Gounod's versions of Romeo and Juliet in her repertory) lives with her husband, Hal, in Verona." and graduated from
Pascack Hills High School
Pascack Hills High School (PHHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of two secondary schools serving students in ninth through twelfth grade as part of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County, in the ...
in 1984. Dunleavy attended
Northwestern University
Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
for her undergraduate degrees and received a master's degree in Music at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
.
[Walkowski, Paul Joseph]
"For soprano Mary Dunleavy, her stylish, virtuosic, gleaming, supple, voice has earned her a place among the opera notables of her generation."
, OperaOnline.us. Accessed October 15, 2007. "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..." She has studied with
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (24 February 1934 – 16 August 2023) was an Italian soprano, opera director, and voice teacher. Recognised for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered to have been one of the pr ...
,
Mignon Dunn, and
Rita Shane.
In the United States, she has performed with the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
,
San Francisco Opera
The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California.
History
Gaetano Merola (1923–1953)
Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...
,
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is an American opera company based in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox (Chicago opera), Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, w ...
,
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...
,
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera, originally called the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler P ...
,
Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performance ...
,
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...
,
The Dallas Opera,
Opera Company of Philadelphia,
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Typically four operas, all sung in English, are presented each season, which runs from late May to late June. Performances are accompanied by the ...
,
Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. BLO is the largest and longest-lived opera company in New England. BLO employs nearly 350 artists and creative professionals annually—vocalist ...
,
Portland Opera
Portland Opera is an American opera company based in Portland, Oregon. Its performances take place in the Keller Auditorium and Newmark Theatre, both part of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Portland Opera also produces a separate su ...
,
Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Lyric Opera of Kansas City is an American opera company located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Founded in 1958 by conductor Russell Patterson, the company presents an annual season of four operas at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Prod ...
,
Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill ...
,
Des Moines Metro Opera
Des Moines Metro Opera is an American opera company based in Indianola, Iowa, which lies some south of Des Moines, Iowa. It was founded by Robert L. Larsen and Douglas Duncan in 1973. The director is Michael Egel.
During its annual summer fest ...
and others. Mary also appears in Steven Spielberg's film ''
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln (na ...
'' performing as Marguerite in ''
Faust
Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...
'' and in the independent short as Geraldine in A Hand of Bridge .
Outside the U.S., her operatic performances have been with
De Nederlandse Opera
The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a m ...
(Amsterdam),
Gran Teatro del Liceu (Barcelona),
Opéra National de Paris
The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
,
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is a historic opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and ...
(Naples),
La Monnaie
The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (, ; , ; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National Opera of Belgium, a federal institution, takes the name of this theatre in which it is ho ...
(Brussels),
Municipal Theater of Santiago
The Teatro Municipal, National Opera of Chile is the most important stage theatre and opera house in Santiago, Chile.
History and overview
The Chilean government ceded a significant parcel of land in downtown Santiago to the municipality, in 184 ...
,
Staatsoper Unter den Linden
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Pr ...
(Berlin),
Hamburgische Staatsoper
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...
,
Opéra de Montréal
LOpéra de Montréal () is an opera company in Montreal, Canada. It performs at the Place des Arts theatre complex in downtown Montreal, in the borough of Ville-Marie. It was founded in 1980 as a company focused on productions in French.
Hi ...
,
Garsington Opera
Garsington Opera is an annual summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. The Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert are its two resident orchestras. For 21 years it was held in the gardens of Ingrams's home at Garsingto ...
and others.
Orchestral appearances have been with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...
at the
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...
under
Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer.
Early life and education
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...
,
Cincinnati May Festival
The Cincinnati May Festival is a two-week annual choral music, choral festival, held in May in Cincinnati, Ohio, US.
History
The festival's roots go back to the 1840s, when ''Saengerfests'' were held in that city, bringing singers from all over ...
with
James Conlon
James Conlon (born March 18, 1950) is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.
Early years
Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Che ...
,
Ensemble Orchestral de Paris
The Orchestre de chambre de Paris (OCP) is a French chamber orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs throughout Paris with concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, where it is a resident ensemble, and also at such venues as the Théâtre des ...
under
John Nelson,
St. Louis Symphony
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest professional symphony o ...
under
David Robertson and the late
Hans Vonk,
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...
under
Robert Spano
Robert Spano ( ; born 7 May 1961) is an American conductorDavidson, Justin. "Classical Music: Looking for Magic: Mixing visuals and language into a performance is just part of conductor Robert Spano's pursuit of orchestral risk" (Fanfare); ''Ne ...
,
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center.
History
Though earlier organizations bearing the sam ...
under
Donald Runnicles
Sir Donald Cameron Runnicles (born 16 November 1954) is a Scottish conductor, known for his Romantic symphonic and operatic repertoire, especially Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner. With a career that has spanned ...
,
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...
under
Charles Dutoit
Charles Édouard Dutoit is a Swiss conductor. He is the principal guest conductor for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia.
In 2017, he became the 103rd recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. Dutoit held previous positions ...
, the Lanaudiere Festival under
Jacques Lacombe
Jacques Lacombe, (born July 14, 1963 in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec) is a Canadian conductor.
Biography
Lacombe began his musical learning with choral singing. He later trained as an organist, and continued his studies at the Conservatoire de ...
, and others.
Dunleavy has been a resident of
Verona, New Jersey
Verona is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 14,572, an increase of 1,240 (+9.3%) from the 2010 United ...
.
[
She is a native of ]Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Old Saybrook is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 10, ...
.
Roles
Roles during her career have included:
• Violetta — La Traviata (Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...
)
• Gilda — Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...
(Verdi)
• Mimi — La Boheme
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
*La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
*"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...
(Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...
)
• Musetta — La Boheme
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
*La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
*"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...
(Puccini)
• Giulietta — I Capuleti e i Montecchi
''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'' (''The Capulets and the Montagues'') is an Italian opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of ''Romeo and Juliet'' for an opera by Nicol ...
( Bellini)
• Adina — L'elisir d'amore
''L'elisir d'amore'' (; ''The Elixir of Love'') is a (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's (1831). ...
(Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...
)
• Cio-Cio-San — Madama Butterfly
''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Lu ...
(Puccini)
• Lucia — Lucia di Lammermoor
''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...
(Donizetti)
• Pamina — Die Zauberflöte
''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
• Donna Anna — Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...
(Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
)
• Donna Elvira — Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...
(Mozart)
• Konstanze — Die Entführung aus dem Serail
' () (Köchel catalogue, K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's . The plot concer ...
(Mozart)
• Countess Almaviva — Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...
(Mozart)
• Susanna — Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...
(Mozart)
• Fiordiligi — Così fan tutte
(''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...
(Mozart)
• Thaïs — Thaïs
Thaïs (; ; ) was a Greek who accompanied Alexander the Great on his military campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for having instigated the burning of Persepolis, the capital city of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, after it was con ...
(Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...
)
• Léïla — Les pêcheurs de perles
' (, ''The Pearl Fishers'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performan ...
( Bizet)
• Micaela — Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
(Bizet)
• Hoffmann Heroines — Les Contes d'Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
( Offenbach)
• Infanta Donna Clara - Der Zwerg
''Der Zwerg'' (''The Dwarf''), Op. 17, is an opera in one act by Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky to a libretto by Georg C. Klaren, freely adapted from the short story " The Birthday of the Infanta" by Oscar Wilde.
Composition history
...
( Zemlinsky)
• Christine Storch - Intermezzo
In music, an intermezzo (, , plural form: intermezzi), in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term ha ...
• Adele - Die Fledermaus
' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874.
Background
The original literary source for ' was ...
( Strauss II)
• Rosalinde - Die Fledermaus
' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874.
Background
The original literary source for ' was ...
(Strauss II)
• Millicent Jordan - Dinner at Eight ( Bolcom)
• Stepmother - Cinderella
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...
(Deutscher
Deutscher is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alma Deutscher, British musician and composer
* Drafi Deutscher, German singer and composer
* Guy Deutscher (linguist)
* Guy Deutscher (physicist)
* Isaac Deutscher, Britis ...
)
• Isabella Stewart Gardner - American Apollo
From 1994 through 2002, she sang the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte in 84 performances. She retired the role in 2002. In 2006, she became only the third woman to sing both Pamina and the Queen of the Night for the Metropolitan Opera (Lucia Popp
Lucia Popp (born Lucia Poppová; 12 November 193916 November 1993) was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Str ...
and Colette Boky preceded her).
Awards
*Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year, The Dallas Opera, 2006
*Outstanding Young Texas Exes Award, The University of Texas at Austin, 2006
*Cultural Award, American-Irish Historical Society, 2004
*Top 100 List, Irish America Magazine, 2003, 2005
References
External links
Mary Dunleavy website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunleavy, Mary
Living people
American operatic sopranos
Bienen School of Music alumni
Pascack Hills High School alumni
People from Montvale, New Jersey
People from Verona, New Jersey
Moody College of Communication alumni
1966 births
People from Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Singers from New Jersey
Classical musicians from New Jersey