A voice like ‘Sleeping Beauty’

Chuck Benedict

o7 “Sir James Barrie wrote, ‘Charm is a kind of bloom on a woman. If

she has it, she doesn’t need anything else, and if she doesn’t have it,

it doesn’t matter what else she has.’ Mary Costa has many things other

than charm to make her distinctive -- talent, a crystal-clear, God-given

voice, beauty, a commanding presence and strong faith.”f7

-- Nell Mohney, author.

In the 100-year history of Glendale High School, no graduate has

reached such world-renowned acclaim in music as Mary Costa, Class of

1948.

Still looking like a youngish performing arts star, Mary celebrated

her birthday April 5. Her career has included the leads in many operas,

especially as Violetta in “La Traviata”(Verdi), which, in her debut at

the Metropolitan Opera Company, elicited one of the great audience

reactions in the history of the Met.

Costa tells how important it was that she and her family came to visit

our area in 1946: “When I was a teenager in Knoxville, Tenn., my mom and

dad and I visited relatives in Los Angeles. My aunt gave a party and a

group of us were singing informally around the piano. Mrs. Leland

Atherton Irish, a prominent supporter of opera, took my mother aside and

told her that I had singing possibilities.

“She suggested that the family move to Los Angeles and that she would

arrange for me to spend the last part of each school day studying voice

at the Los Angeles Conservatory. She also advised us that Glendale was a

perfect residential community. “When we got back to Knoxville, we

talked it over, and my Dad was persuaded to make the move. We stayed with

relatives in La Crescenta for awhile, and later settled in on Eden

Avenue, where the [Glendale] 2 Freeway now passes over Glenoaks.”

At Glendale High School, as a junior, Mary auditioned and was awarded

the leading role in a revival of the 1902 operetta, “The Prince of

Pilsen.” Her singing had won her the role, but the first dialogue

rehearsal was a disaster. Singing may disguise an accent, but dialogue

does not, and her strange Tennessee speech habits were totally improper

for the part.

“Drama teachers helped,” she said. “By opening night I could say every

word in the script without an accent. I also was wearing a hat and other

clothes I normally never would wear. So my Dad, in the audience, nudged

my mother and said, ‘When’s Mary coming on?’ Mom pointed to me and said,

‘Hush, John. She’s been onstage for 10 minutes.’ ”

“‘Dad’s reply was, ‘Where’d she get that funny accent?’ ”

A few months later, John Costa died of hidden cancer. After the

funeral in Tennessee, Hazel Costa and her daughter decided to come back

to Glendale to continue Mary’s studies.

At Glendale High, she had many close friends, including Sally Saint,

the niece of Dr. Jim Brougher, who still is the pastor of the First

Baptist Church in Glendale. Sally now is Mrs. Warren Bowen, living in

Fort Benton, Mont.

Meanwhile, Mary was singing in Dr. Brougher’s choir and in other

places around Glendale where her great talent was known.

Costa recalls another friend in the Class of ‘48: “I always admired

and envied Gloria Talbott, because she had so much poise and talent.

Gloria became a busy movie actress, and had fine roles in many movies.

“Years later, when I was singing with the San Francisco Opera, Gloria

came backstage and said, ‘Mary, I always envied you because you had so

much poise and talent.’ I guess we had a lot of regard for each other.

She retired early from acting and lived in Glendale until she passed away

recently.”

In her senior year at Glendale High, Mary bypassed the school operetta

to concentrate on drama classes, leading to TV and radio commercials and

guest appearances. However, she did write an original radio play called

“The Dark Veil” and performed the leading role on Glendale’s own station,

KIEV [now KRLA].

Her biggest pre-opera coup was in 1952, when she was chosen by Walt

Disney to sing the lead in ‘Sleeping Beauty,”still considered by the

company to be its finest musical. Happily, it’s a role that still keeps

Costa busy. Now, on video, there’s a new issue of the original movie.

Mary is busy doing promotional appearances for it across the land,

getting new kicks from the tour.

“Recently, when I was promoting the video, a little boy said to me,

‘When you are sleeping, do you ever wonder whether you are going to wake

up?’ ” she recalled. “I told him the thought comes to everyone at one

time or another. Then he said, ‘When I am old enough, I am going to be

sure you always wake up.”

The production of “Sleeping Beauty” was first released in 1959, seven

years after Mary had recorded her role. Meantime, she made her opera

debut. In 1958, at the huge Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, she played

the lead in Guild Opera’s “The Bartered Bride” (Smetana), following the

lead of opera star Marilyn Horne, who also received her first opera

paycheck in a Guild Opera performance.

Guild Opera has presented daytime, fully staged, full-scale, full

orchestra, fully professional performances of famous operas (in English)

to some 4 million school children. They are bused from their schools to

opera venues, including the Glendale High School Auditorium, the most

modern and most opera-capable house in the Glendale area.

Mary enthusiastically recalls: “I still have a special picture on my

wall showing me taking my first opera bow, in front of nearly 7,000

applauding children. To this day, I’ve never had a bigger thrill.”

Guild Opera led her to Glyndebourne in England, then to the famed San

Francisco Opera, and, in 1964, to her well-remembered debut with the

Metropolitan Opera. Within a few days of her Met debut, Costa sang in

concert Jan. 15, 1964, at Hoover High School. The next day in the

News-Press, Patye Fowler’s review of the concert included: “If you have

seen sunlight after a storm ... If you have seen beauty of countenance

with humility of spirit ... If you have heard a nightingale in spring ...

You have seen and heard Mary Costa.”

When the conservative and arty New York Metropolitan Opera critics

praised her debut, Mary had reached a long-lasting peak in a

world-acclaimed career. In addition to 43 major opera roles, she was, for

years, the opera world’s most-in-demand Violetta.

Eventually, she retired to take care of her ill mother, Hazel, who, in

1993, passed away in Florida at 101, leaving many Glendale friends. Now,

Mary lives near her cousins, who are in the 120-year old homestead in

Knoxville. However, she is busy on a schedule set by Disney.

Apart from words promoting the movie title, Mary Costa says, “You

know, I believe there’s a beauty sleeping in everybody. Each one has to

wake it up. Ask the Lord, ‘What is my gift?’ Perhaps it’s the gift of

words. The words one uses can either uplift or undermine another person’s

spirit. Uplift others. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can have.”

Reach CHUCK BENEDICT at 637-3200 (voice mail 974); by fax at 549-9191;

or by e-mail at BChuckbenedict@aol.com.