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I was born in the Niagara Region and have, since age five, represented Canada in local, provincial, and national competitions to stages worldwide. I have been called a “triple threat artist,” because my career is as a performer (voice, piano, and concert accordion), a researcher and academic, and a highly sought-after voice/opera pedagogue.
In 2019, I made my debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall. I love to sing! What a thrill it is to use my voice to make an audience feel ecstatic. Whether it’s by using my “pianissimi” or effecting acuti like a high C, D, or Eb with a lirico spinto voice, my goal is to make people hear the unexpected and feel the emotions that our society tells us we are not allowed to feel. When I’m on stage, I leave it all on the stage, I give my heart, soul, and voice over to the superb writing of composers like Bellini, Verdi, and Puccini. I feel very blessed to do so.
I’ve performed at the most prestigious performance venues in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, South America, and Europe. From a performance at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, reviewer Michael Caruso said, “Her singing not only combined the tonal beauty of Renata Tebaldi with just a touch of Maria Callas’ cutting edge.” I have had the pleasure to meet and be guided by great personages in opera: Simonetta Puccini (Giacomo Puccini’s granddaughter), legendary opera conductor Maestro Richard Bonynge, the Fondazione Museo Renata Tebaldi, the Amici di Verdi in Busseto, Italy, as well as conductors and concert organizers on five continents. I specialize in the Verdian and Puccinian heroines and have performed the roles of Mimi (La Boheme), Violetta (La Traviata), Suor Angelica, Amelia Grimaldi (Simon Boccanegra), Desdemona (Otello), Leonora (Il Trovatore), Liû (Turandot), Norma, and I continue to expand my repertoire.
Over the years, I have established, designed, and founded several prestigious and internationally renowned Summer Opera Programs in Italy. In 2017, I founded and became the General Director of Niagara’s first opera company, “Opera Niagara,” which features performers from all corners of the globe and seeks to bring the historic opera genre to the general public in an accessible and humanistic manner. In 2024, I forged Niagara’s first international opera festival as an extended branch of Opera Niagara. “The Opera Festival of Niagara.” My studio, The Vetere Studio International, has received global attention, and my over 60 international singers became the subject of a feature article in Opera Canada Magazine Spring Issue 2020. My students span across five continents and have received numerous awards, recognition, and perform readily on global stages. I am very proud of them.
I hold a PhD in Historical Musicology, an MA in Historical Musicology, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano and Voice Performance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. My dissertation, Italian Opera from Verdi to Verismo: Boito and the Scapigliatura (University of Chicago Press, 2010), has been lauded as a seminal contribution to the historiography of Italian Opera.
Presently, my research focus is on Verdi’s enigmatic and unfinished opera, King Lear, via the autograph libretto, which details a work more modern than what both Ricordi and the censors would have deemed acceptable. Why would Verdi change styles when his works were the “hits” of the day and significant money-makers for the publishing enterprise? I propose that the formation of the Scapigliatura Milanese and their desire to combat Wagner’s growing power to overthrow the conventions of Italian opera, influenced this change in Verdi. That several versions of the libretto for King Lear exist, suggests that Verdi also composed music, and it is my belief that musical fragments of King Lear exist somewhere, even if it has been documented that Verdi discarded any music. Verdi, attempting to modernize as early as 1850, is a prospect that would have significantly altered the progression of Italian opera. The lack of information, dearth of recent research, and complicated reasons why Verdi abandoned the project invoke a need for further exploration of this would-be critical work in Italian opera history.
I first taught Music History at Laurier in 2006, and I fondly remember Dean Glen Carruthers and Professor Emeritus Alma Santosuosso, both of whom welcomed me and supported my research interests. Laurier provides an invigorating environment to work in that is student-centric and thus conducive to the learning and development of budding musical scholars. I have worked with exceptional students at Laurier who impressed me with their knowledge, depth of inquiry, and unique devotion toward their individual métiers. Their passion inspired me to go beyond the norm, pushing them beyond their limits and my own. Many of those students went on to pursue careers in music, and many are still a part of my life. I am thrilled to be back at Laurier and sharing my own passion for Opera with a new generation of scholars.
In 2021, I was inducted into the Niagara Falls Cultural Wall of Fame for my global operatic and musical achievements. In 2017, I received the highest honour of the NYIOP International Auditions for vocal excellence in a female voice internationally. I am honoured to have received numerous awards, accolades, and academic scholarships. I continue to present my research globally at musicological conferences, universities, conservatories, and in public lecture series.
“Italian Opera from Verdi to Verismo: Boito and La Scapigliatura” (University at Michigan Press, 2010)
Contact Info:
Office location: M2038
Office hours:
Mondays from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. and Wednesdays by appointment
Languages spoken: English, Italian, French
Personal website: mariavetere.com