For the past several years, Violetta and Gilda have been two of Mary's favorite and most successful roles. Her performances at the Met, San Francisco, Barcelona, Amsterdam, NYCO, St. Louis, and others have made it clear that Verdi will be as important to her in the future as he has been to this point. As time goes on, Mary hopes to add other Verdi heroines to her repertoire, including the title role in Luisa Miller and Leonora in Il Trovatore.

“I love how real Verdi feels to me. I learn so much about myself in whatever role I sing, but particularly with his music.” That kind of self-discovery is one of the most important byproducts of the intensive work she does with her longtime acting coach, Hank Hammett. “Hank and I have spent countless hours focusing on what I can bring to a role that makes it both authentic for the character, yet uniquely my own. Violetta is a perfect example of this. Her story, of course, is always the same on paper - but my goal is to tell it in a way that seems totally new each night. To do that, you have to make choices based on whatever is happening to the character in the moment, and those choices are colored and nuanced by my experiences, my life. She changes and grows with me as I change and grow, and I hope she'll continue to do so.”

“When I'm so deeply connected to a role like this, I like to think it's something that the audience can definitely feel. That somehow, what I'm finding out about myself is something they can find out about themselves as well. Verdi has taken me on some amazing journeys, and I'm glad so many people have been there to share them with me.”