http://www.marydunleavy.com
MARY DUNLEAVY continues to be praised as one of the most exciting singers in this generation of lyric coloratura sopranos. She is lauded for her varied and vivid gallery of operatic heroines seen on many of the leading stages throughout the world.
Her 2005-06 season commences with her company debut at The Dallas Opera, where she tackles one of the surest tests of a soprano’s versatility – all four heroines in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. She joins the St. Louis Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, conducted by David Robertson in his inaugural season as Music Director. At the Metropolitan Opera, her artistic home since 1993, she appears in two contrasting roles. In the Company’s celebrated Julie Taymor production of Die Zauberflöte, she sings Pamina. Long remembered for her portrayal of The Queen of the Night, this marks the first time she sings the more lyric part there; it also represents only the third time in Met history that a singer has sung both roles for the company. Met audiences also have the opportunity to hear and see Ms. Dunleavy in her most celebrated role, Violetta in La traviata. A new role awaits her for a return to the Opera Company of Philadelphia, where she adds the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro to her growing gallery of Mozart heroines. She then makes her debut with the Cincinnati May Festival as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with James Conlon on the podium.
The 2004-05 season featured a host of company and role debuts, starting with her first operatic appearances at Chile’s Teatro Municipal de Santiago as Gilda in Rigoletto. This was followed by a reengagement with the San Francisco Opera in La traviata. Shortly thereafter, San Francisco Symphony audiences heard her for the first time in Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony under the baton of Robert Spano. She added a major new role to her repertory, Giunia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla, at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. The New Year commenced with Adina in L’elisir d’amore, which served as the vehicle for her debut at Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo. She made a greatly anticipated return to New York City Opera as Léïla in Les pêcheurs de perles, followed by her first set of Aminas in La Sonnambula as her introduction to audiences in Bilbao. Another debut followed: with the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest as Violetta in concert performances of La traviata at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. A return to Québec’s Festival International de Lanaudière for a duo-concert with mezzo Jennifer Larmore and Les Violons du Roy ended the season.
Among Ms. Dunleavy’s earlier career highlights are: Violetta at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, New York City Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Gilda at the Metropolitan Opera, Hamburgische Staatsoper and Opera Pacific; Konstanze with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Washington National Opera, NYCO and Opera Company of Philadelphia; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte in Philadelphia; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Michigan Opera Theatre; Pamina with Boston Lyric Opera; Adele in Die Fledermaus with the Opéra National de Paris; Micaëla in Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera (including the international radio broadcast), De Nederlandse and Pittsburgh Operas; Ophélie in Hamlet at Gran Teatre del Liceu; Léïla with Opera Company of Philadelphia and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; the title role in Thaïs with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Olympia and Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Met; Héro in Béatrice et Bénédict in Amsterdam; Adina in L'elisir d'amore with Portland Opera; Giulietta in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi at NYCO; and the title-role in Lucia di Lammermoor with L’Opéra de Montréal and Connecticut Opera. Her Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, a role which she retired in 2002, was heard at the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Houston Grand Opera, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence, Montréal and NYCO.
Ms. Dunleavy’s orchestral appearances have included: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Atlanta Symphony, led by Donald Runnicles (available on Telarc), the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, as well as with the St. Louis Symphony. With the latter, she also performed Mozart concert arias under the late Hans Vonk. In addition, she was heard in: Carmina Burana with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the New York Choral Society, and a selection of arias with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Jacques Lacombe at the Lanaudière Festival, broadcast on the CBC.
Ms. Dunleavy was born in Connecticut and raised in New Jersey. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and earned her Master’s Degree in Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held a Dr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler Scholarship in Opera. Ms. Dunleavy frequently returns to the U.T. School of Music to give Master Classes. In 2006, she was named one of four Outstanding Young Texas Exes by the University.