Dodi Protero
Encyclopedia
Dodi Protero was a Canadian
opera
tic soprano
who had a prolific international career from 1955 through 1980. A singer with a great deal of technical finess, she excelled in the coloratura soprano
and soubrette
repertoires. She later had a successful second career as a voice teacher.
, Protero studied singing with James Rossellino in her native city from 1949 through 1959 and her first professional performing experiences were with his Rosselino Opera Company during the early 1950s as Annina in performances of Giuseppe Verdi
's La traviata
. She was also a pupil of Toti dal Monte
in Venice (1955-1957), Ferdinand Grossmann
in Vienna (1957), Lawrence Fehenberger in Munich (1963), and in New York City with Rosa Bok (1967-1970) and Oren Brown
(1975-1976). She made her European opera debut in 1955 as Papagena in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's The Magic Flute
at the Teatro di San Carlo
. That same year she won the Siena International Singing Competition and in 1957 she won the singing competition at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
In the late 1950s, Protero made appearances at the Bielefeld Opera
, the Oper der Stadt Köln, and the Opernhaus Wuppertal
. She sang for the first time at the Salzburg Festival
in 1959 as Clarice in Joseph Haydn
's Il mondo della luna
. She also performed in concerts of works by Mozart at Salzburg in 1959 and 1960. She sang Papagena at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1960 and that same year made her first appearance with the Canadian Opera Company
(COC) as Ciboletta in Johann Strauss II
's Eine Nacht in Venedig
. She returned to the COC numerous times during her career, portraying such roles as Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck
's Hänsel und Gretel (1962, 1963), Musetta in Giacomo Puccini
's La bohème
(1965), Parasha in Igor Stravinsky
's Mavra
(1965), Oona in the world premiere of Raymond Pannell's The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1967), Rosina in The Barber of Seville
(1970), and Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven
's Fidelio
(1970).
Protero performed in several productions with the English National Opera
during the 1960s. In 1963 she toured Europe with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg
. She portrayed the role of Mrs. Bedwin in the 1965 Broadway
revival of Lionel Bart
's Oliver!
. Other guest appearances include performances with the Calgary Opera
, New Orleans Opera
, Pittsburgh Opera
, San Antonio Opera, the Stratford Festival, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
, the Teatro Massimo
, Vancouver Opera
, and numerous return engagements at the Teatro di San Carlo.
After retiring from the stage in 1980, Protero dedicated her time to teaching singing. She taught on the voice faculties of the Banff School of Fine Arts (1975–1982), the University of Illinois (1976–1987), Opera Music Theater International in New Jersey (1989–93), the Academy of Vocal Arts
in Philadelphia (1992–1995) and the Juilliard School
(1991-2007). Several of her students have gone on to successful singing careers, including Mario Frangoulis
. She was married for many years to tenor Alan Crofoot
and served on the Executive Board of the New Jersey Opera. She died in New York City at the age of 76.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
who had a prolific international career from 1955 through 1980. A singer with a great deal of technical finess, she excelled in the coloratura soprano
Coloratura soprano
A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano who specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs and leaps. The term coloratura refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component of the music written for this voice...
and soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
repertoires. She later had a successful second career as a voice teacher.
Biography
Born Dorothy Ann MacGregor (later adopted the name McIlraith) in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Protero studied singing with James Rossellino in her native city from 1949 through 1959 and her first professional performing experiences were with his Rosselino Opera Company during the early 1950s as Annina in performances of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. She was also a pupil of Toti dal Monte
Toti Dal Monte
Antonietta Meneghel , better known by her stage name Toti Dal Monte, was a celebrated Italian operatic soprano with a sweet and limpid lyric voice. She was a favourite artist of the celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini...
in Venice (1955-1957), Ferdinand Grossmann
Ferdinand Grossmann
Ferdinand Grossmann was an Austrian choral conductor, vocal teacher and composer .-Biography:He studied music in Linz. Some years later in Vienna he attended a class of conducting given by Felix Weingartner....
in Vienna (1957), Lawrence Fehenberger in Munich (1963), and in New York City with Rosa Bok (1967-1970) and Oren Brown
Oren Brown
Oren Brown was a famous American vocal pedagogist and voice teacher.Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, Brown attended Boston University where he earned a bachelors of music with an emphasis in vocal performance and a masters degree in music composition. In 1932 he began his long career as a...
(1975-1976). She made her European opera debut in 1955 as Papagena in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
. That same year she won the Siena International Singing Competition and in 1957 she won the singing competition at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
In the late 1950s, Protero made appearances at the Bielefeld Opera
Bielefeld Opera
The Bielefeld Opera is the venue of Städtische Bühnen Bielefeld in Bielefeld, Germany. It is a Dreisparten Haus , offering plays, music , and ballet...
, the Oper der Stadt Köln, and the Opernhaus Wuppertal
Opernhaus Wuppertal
Opernhaus Wuppertal is a theatre in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany....
. She sang for the first time at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in 1959 as Clarice in Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's Il mondo della luna
Il mondo della luna
Il mondo della luna , Hob. 28/7, is an opera buffa by Joseph Haydn with a libretto by Carlo Goldoni, first performed at Eszterháza, Hungary on 3 August 1777. Goldoni's libretto had previously been set by four other composers, first by the composer Baldassare Galuppi and performed in Venice in the...
. She also performed in concerts of works by Mozart at Salzburg in 1959 and 1960. She sang Papagena at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1960 and that same year made her first appearance with the Canadian Opera Company
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and the third largest producer of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.-History:For 40 years until...
(COC) as Ciboletta in Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Eine Nacht in Venedig
Eine Nacht in Venedig
Eine Nacht in Venedig is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II and was premiered in Berlin on 3 October 1883 in the Neues Friedrich Wilhelmstadisches Theater, and is the only one of the operettas of Johann Strauss II ever to be premiered outside Vienna...
. She returned to the COC numerous times during her career, portraying such roles as Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
's Hänsel und Gretel (1962, 1963), Musetta in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
(1965), Parasha in Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Mavra
Mavra
Mavra is a one-act opera buffa composed by Igor Stravinsky, and one of the earliest works of Stravinsky's 'neo-classical' period. The libretto of the opera, by Boris Kochno, is based on Aleksandr Pushkin's The Little House in Kolomna. Mavra is about 25 minutes long, and features two arias, a...
(1965), Oona in the world premiere of Raymond Pannell's The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1967), Rosina in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
(1970), and Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
(1970).
Protero performed in several productions with the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
during the 1960s. In 1963 she toured Europe with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg
Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg
The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra is the symphony orchestra of the town and state of Salzburg, Austria. It was founded in 1841 and acquired its current name in 1908. It is a major participant at the Salzburg Festival....
. She portrayed the role of Mrs. Bedwin in the 1965 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
revival of Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
's Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
. Other guest appearances include performances with the Calgary Opera
Calgary Opera
The Calgary Opera is a Canadian professional opera company in Calgary, Alberta, originally known as the Southern Alberta Opera Association. It performs in the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, accompanied by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Calgary Opera Chorus...
, New Orleans Opera
New Orleans Opera
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
, Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of two opera companies in the city, the other being Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the...
, San Antonio Opera, the Stratford Festival, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
, the Teatro Massimo
Teatro Massimo
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II....
, Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera is the second largest performing arts organization in British Columbia and the largest opera company in western Canada.It performs in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre accompanied currently by the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, one of two specialized opera orchestras in Canada...
, and numerous return engagements at the Teatro di San Carlo.
After retiring from the stage in 1980, Protero dedicated her time to teaching singing. She taught on the voice faculties of the Banff School of Fine Arts (1975–1982), the University of Illinois (1976–1987), Opera Music Theater International in New Jersey (1989–93), the Academy of Vocal Arts
Academy of Vocal Arts
The Academy of Vocal Arts is a school dedicated to providing free higher education to aspiring opera singers. The school was founded in 1934 by Helen Corning Warden and is located at 1920 Spruce Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:...
in Philadelphia (1992–1995) and the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
(1991-2007). Several of her students have gone on to successful singing careers, including Mario Frangoulis
Mario Frangoulis
Mario Frangoulis is a Greek tenor and is best known for his song, "Vincerò, Perderò". He sings in Italian, Spanish, English, French, and Greek; he is fluent in all 5 languages.-Early life:...
. She was married for many years to tenor Alan Crofoot
Alan Crofoot
Alan Crofoot was a Canadian operatic Heldentenor and character tenor specialist, as well as actor, who is best remembered as the host of Mr Piper, a children's television series made in 1963. It was originally shown by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and also became well-known in the...
and served on the Executive Board of the New Jersey Opera. She died in New York City at the age of 76.