When Mary Elizabeth Williams ’97 played Leonora in Il Trovatore, Opera News declared that she could be “the next great Verdi soprano.” The Washington Post has called her presence on stage “at once regal and human.” The Independent (UK) raved that she “stole the show” as Nabucco’s Abigaille, “inhabiting with relish every clear, sensuous note.”
Despite all the accolades, Williams puts her work in perspective with clarity, humor, and grace, and says the best is yet to come.
How English class helps a singer
Growing up in Philadelphia as part of a small church with no children’s choir, Williams sang with the adults. She began voice lessons at age 11, but says, “I didn’t think I was going to sing as a career because it didn’t seem practical. I started out just as a very fervent amateur.”
Williams heard about Luther from her church organist, Jon Spong, now deceased, who occasionally taught and played at the college. Williams planned to become a lawyer and eventually a judge, to which Spong replied, “That’s fine, you can go to college for whatever you want, but you’re going to be a singer. You need to be in a place where you can study singing at the same time.”
By the time she got to Decorah, Williams was having second thoughts about law. She took a poetry class her second semester, loved it, and ended up declaring an English major. “I think it has really helped me in my musical career to have a strong connection with texts and to be good with language and the analysis of plots and storylines,” she says. “It comes in good use in opera because often you have to work hard to fill in the holes that are left by what’s sometimes a substandard libretto, or you have to figure out a way to fill your character in with information that’s historically accurate, and I find that kind of exploration interesting. . . . I get a real kick out of building characters and building relationships with the other characters, the other players on stage, and I think I’m better at it than I would have been were I not an English major.”
From Show Boat to Tosca
By the time she graduated, Williams had also participated in Nordic and Pike Kor (a first-year female choir) and musical theatre, and it was clear she was destined for professional singing. However, she was graduating at age 20 (having entered Luther early), which was very young for her voice type. “I was just a big ball of potential. I was very nervous about going out in the world and very aware that I wasn’t ready to lead,” she recalls. She started a master’s program at Northwestern but, she says, “I didn’t want to talk or write about singing—I just wanted to sing.”Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
She seized an opportunity to audition for a touring Broadway production of Show Boat and landed a part as a swing, which meant she had to cover the roles of nine people. “It was hard work,” she says, “and it took me three months to feel comfortable. Once I had to go on as two people at the same time. I remember sitting with the dance captain and figuring out in each scene which person I needed to be, which role was more important.”
But once Williams mastered the show, she grew restless. Whenever the tour pulled into a new town, she’d call the local universities and arrange for a lesson from the voice faculty. Eventually her voice matured enough for her to feel comfortable making the transition to opera, and she landed a spot in Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program.
Williams has since sung iconic roles. She’s played Tosca in Tosca, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Abigaille in Nabucco, Wally in La Wally, Adriana in Adriana Lecouvreur, Serena in Porgy and Bess, and Aida in Aida. She’s performed lead and title roles in Italy, Switzerland, France, Wales, Germany, Belgium, and various cities across the U.S., including Seattle, where she won Seattle Opera Artist of the Year in 2011.
During the 2015–16 season, Williams will assume five or six roles, debuting in four of those—Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Norma in Norma, Queen Elizabeth in Maria Stuarda, and Chimène in Le Cid. While Williams is the first to admit that singing four new roles in one season is ill advised, she’s been working on the material for years and couldn’t pass up the opportunities.
“After Norma it will be all downhill,” she jokes. “I always figured I wouldn’t sing that role until my forties, but I have always debuted things earlier than I think I should. It always happens that I’m asked about three or four years earlier. There are some natural things that happen to a woman’s voice as she gets older, and I’m just now starting my good years. So I always have to remember that what I might be able to do at 42 will be better than 38, but I also have to accept and embrace where I am artistically and do the best I can when the opportunity arises. The Norma I will sing at 39 is not the Norma I will sing at 45. That’s part of the joy of being an artist. I can listen to old recordings and hear how I’ve changed, and the choices I made at 27 I wouldn’t make now, but they’re authentic.”
Seasons near and far
Williams is aware of time in the way that all singers must be, since a singer’s career is shorter than that of, say, a teacher or administrator. She says, “I went for at least 10 years not doing anything except putting singing first, and I think that’s probably enough.” Of course, anyone who tackles four debut roles in one season must be dedicated to her craft—but Williams is intentional now about building a life outside of opera. In 2014 she married tenor Lorenzo Decaro, with whom she lives in Milan.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
“For me,” she says, “the big problem about being an artist is that it requires a maximum availability. You have to stay available to go wherever opportunities present themselves whenever they present themselves. It’s hard then to build any other thing that has equal importance in your life. We’re like tumbleweeds—we have to go where the wind blows us. But as I’ve gotten older, and now that I’m married, my priorities have changed and I’ve been more willing to give up opportunities. Sometimes I say no. Sometimes I say I don’t want to be away from home for four months, but I’ll be away for two. Ten years from now, I’ll be wrapping it up, and I want to start transitioning now and investing in a life now so that when I am ready to hang it up, I’ll have something to hang it up for. Some people make the opposite decision, and both are equally valid.”
She continues, “What I’d like is to be in a position to take advantage of what I’ve learned in this crazy life of traveling and languages and culture. I think I’ve become a better and smarter person than I was 15 years ago, and it would be a real shame if I didn’t find a way to use this and pass it on. I guess I’m always looking for the next chapter, and I’m aware that everything has a season.”
But even while she’s looking—eventually—toward the far-off future, it seems like Williams will be hearing brava for many seasons to come.
Visit the artist’s website at maryelizabethwilliams.com.