Opera Singer. A soprano, she is remembered for her busy three years at the Metropolitan Opera. Raised in Detroit, she studied voice there and in Rome then received weekly lessons in Baltimore from the legendary Rosa Ponselle. Maria won the 1951 Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air and sang the first of her 128 performances with the company on November 20, 1953, as a Peasant Girl in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Over the next years she was heard as several of Verdi's second ladies including Inez from "Il Trovatore", the Countess Ceprano who is persued by the lecherous Duke in "Rigoletto", and Annina of "La Traviata". Her other characters included Clotilde from Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma" and Kate Pinkerton who arrives from America to take away Cio Cio San's child at the end of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" and indeed she was Clotilde on October 29, 1956, when Maria Callas made her well-remembered Metropolitan debut. Maria gave her final Metropolitan performance on December 6, 1956, as Countess Ceprano, married Metropolitan Orchestra trumpeter Joseph Alessi in a 1957 Las Vegas wedding, and in 1959 settled in the San Francisco suburb of Terra Linda. Known as Mrs. Alessi after her marriage, she continued singing well into advanced years and was a valued choir member at St. Isabella's Catholic Church. Maria relocated to New York in order to be near family in 2010; her art is preserved on some archived Metropolitan broadcasts. Her sons Joe and Ralph are both noted musicians.
Opera Singer. A soprano, she is remembered for her busy three years at the Metropolitan Opera. Raised in Detroit, she studied voice there and in Rome then received weekly lessons in Baltimore from the legendary Rosa Ponselle. Maria won the 1951 Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air and sang the first of her 128 performances with the company on November 20, 1953, as a Peasant Girl in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Over the next years she was heard as several of Verdi's second ladies including Inez from "Il Trovatore", the Countess Ceprano who is persued by the lecherous Duke in "Rigoletto", and Annina of "La Traviata". Her other characters included Clotilde from Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma" and Kate Pinkerton who arrives from America to take away Cio Cio San's child at the end of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" and indeed she was Clotilde on October 29, 1956, when Maria Callas made her well-remembered Metropolitan debut. Maria gave her final Metropolitan performance on December 6, 1956, as Countess Ceprano, married Metropolitan Orchestra trumpeter Joseph Alessi in a 1957 Las Vegas wedding, and in 1959 settled in the San Francisco suburb of Terra Linda. Known as Mrs. Alessi after her marriage, she continued singing well into advanced years and was a valued choir member at St. Isabella's Catholic Church. Maria relocated to New York in order to be near family in 2010; her art is preserved on some archived Metropolitan broadcasts. Her sons Joe and Ralph are both noted musicians.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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