Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
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Opera Singers in Our Midst (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 102) while she continued to mature as an artist, commissioned, black-box productions. Successful opera singers today need to be patient as Mongiardo won the Metropolitan Opera their voices and careers develop, and nimble enough to embrace social media and modern National Council Auditions in 2001. That travel and communications. changed the trajectory. Bel Canto Global Arts picked her up and represents her today. "My parents have been incredible from By sharing their stories, Lawrence and Mongiardo give us a look behind the curtain at what it takes to become a successful opera singer in the 21st century. Their stories leave us marveling at the passionate attraction to this timeless art form. the beginning," Mongiardo says, by taking her to singing lessons, helping a bit when she was short on rent in New York, and now backing her up with child care. "They were the voice of encouragement and positivity when other voices could get negative." In 2011 Alex Lawrence married Carin Gilfry, a mezzo-soprano he met at New York's Glimmerglass Festival. Her father is the wellknown opera singer Rod Gilfry. "Things have come full circle," Lawrence notes with a smile. "My father-in-law had the same job as I have in Zurich in the 1990s. And I have a wife who really understands the business." Mongiardo met her husband six months before she was scheduled to leave for Dusseldorf to be a fest singer in the Dusseldorf Opera. They currently live in Europe because of her husband's work, and that gives her easy access to opportunities on the continent without a trans-Atlantic flight. "Dreux is supportive of my work and travels to be with us Opera today is a fascinating mix of old and new. The instrument, the human voice, is as basic as you can get, inherited and developed over many years. Repertoire spans the centuries, from classic and bel canto to newly 107 w i n t e r 2 0 1 3 / 2 0 1 4 | We l l e s l e y We s t o n M a g a z i n e whenever he can."