Irene Dalis had two distinguished careers in music spanning over sixty years without becoming a household name. I doubt she minded. Dalis, born in San Jose California in 1925, was one of the world's leading mezzo- sopranos from the early 1950s until her (first) retirement around 1976. She sang Wagner at Bayreuth, as well as Wagner, Verdi and just about everyone else at the Metropolitan Opera. She was a favorite in San Francisco, Munich, Berlin, and Italy. When she left singing, Irene Dalis went home and revived the San Jose Opera. "Nice," you yawn; she got some country club ladies together and did little concerts over tea of highballs. Nope. Her model was a professional training program for singers, conductors, designers and backstage personnel. The transition from student to professional would be simplified. Irene's musicians were paid an annual salary, plus housing. They were kept busy singing leading roles in main stage productions which were covered worldwide. They worked in schools and hospitals. The life of a San Jose artist was not for the timid. Irene Dalis and the San Jose Opera created the model followed by many schools today: don't charge tuition, pay the young artists, and saturate them with every kind of knowledge they can use, from vocal technique to fencing lessons as well as learning how to pay your taxes if you work two weeks in one country and two months in another. I'll bet auditions for San Jose were fraught and difficult and only the finest potential was recognized. But after two years with the San Jose Opera, you'd be able to weather anything, and you wouldn't be haunted by six figure student loans. If there were any country club lades, they weren't messing around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ25n2GnGdg Irene Dalis died on December 14 at the age of 89. I can't sing or act or find middle C on the piano. I would never have auditioned for the San Jose Opera. But I treasure Irene Dalis because she starred in the first opera I ever saw. She was the gypsy Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore, as performed by the Met on tour in Boston, April 21, 1969. Zubin Mehta conducted. Sherrill Milnes and Martina Arroyo were in the cast , with James McCracken in the title role. No, I am not going to tell you the story of Il Trovatore. Suffice it to say that Dalis/Azucena has the last words in this bloody (magnificent) opera 'Sei vendicata, o madre! 'Mother you are avenged! She proclaimed that line and dropped dead and I was hooked for life. Thank you Irene Dalis. Rest well.
Christopher Purdy is Classical 101's early morning host, 7-10 a.m. weekdays. He is host and producer of Front Row Center – Classical 101’s weekly celebration of Opera and more – as well as Music in Mid-Ohio, Concerts at Ohio State, and the Columbus Symphony broadcast series. He is the regular pre-concert speaker for Columbus Symphony performances in the Ohio Theater.