Maria Lydia Alessi (nee Leone) Passed away Sunday, October 14, 2012. She was born on March 5, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan to Nunzio and Assunta (Bastianelli) Leone. A superb lyric soprano, Maria won the Metropolitan Opera pursue her operatic career. Maria was a devoted student of the great Rosa Ponselle. Maria joined the Metropolitan Opera Company and was noteworthy for having performed more roles at the Met in a single season than any other singer. During her tenure at the Met she sang roles in operas such as l Trovatore, Madame Butterfly, Carmen and Le Nozze di Figaro, and toured extensively. At the Met she caught the attention of her future husband, Joseph Alessi, a trumpeter in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. They married in 1957 in Las Vegas and made their way to San Francisco. Maria and Joe raised two sons, trombonist Joseph Norman Alessi and trumpeter Ralph Peter Alessi, in Terra Linda. She was a loyal longtime member of the choir at St Isabella's RC Church of Terra Linda and continued singing throughout her life. A devoted parent and grandparent and best friend of Sue Stallone of Terra Linda, Maria was a woman with a good sense of humor and a strong sense of commitment to her family, friends, faith, music and her pets. In 2010 she moved back to the New York area to be closer to her family. Maria was predeceased by her beloved husband Joe and by her two brothers, Armando and Ralph Leone of Orchard Lake, Michigan. She is survived by her son Joseph and wife Katherine Rife of Nyack, son Ralph and wife Elizabeth of Brooklyn, sister-in-law Margaret Haas of Norwood, NJ, grandchildren Joseph, Gianna and Mira Alessi as well as being "Aunt Mary" to many nieces and nephews of the Leone families in Michigan.

Published in Marin Independent Journal on October 19, 2012