It has been written that “music soothes the savage breast.” In the days immediately following September 11, 2001, Mary learned with the people of New York that music can soothe the saddened and shocked heart as well.

A week after the attacks, she made her role debut as Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi at New York City Opera. The impact was something she’ll never forget. “I felt such a connection to the audience,” says Mary. “We refused to be scared away – you knew that we all were determined to be there. We wanted to escape, to hear beautiful music and be transported to a different time, a different world. And yet the sadness and suffering in the story itself had so much in common with what was going on that you couldn’t help but be truly moved each night, in a way that was unique for that terrible time.”

The emotion that’s so well captured in the writing of Bellini – emotions shared by so many during those evenings – is what draws Mary to bel canto in general. “There are so many feelings that the style conveys, and they’re all so clearly articulated in the precision of the musical writing. There is absolutely no room for anything other than pure, unadulterated sound, continuously flowing out of you. You shape, caress and stretch, crescendo and then pull that sound back to almost nothing at all, floating on this very transparent orchestration underneath you. It’s the closest thing you can come to singing naked, both technically and emotionally.”