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The Diva Who Keeps on Going and Going…

At 82, Irene Dalis doesn't strut her stuff on the world's greatest opera stages, but her legendary passion and flamboyant personality are still very much in evidence.

By Dave Bunnell

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Irene Dalis may no longer be "the sensuous diva that you can't take your eyes off of," but she's still a stunningly beautiful woman. At 82, she doesn't strut her stuff on the world's greatest opera stages, but her legendary passion and flamboyant personality are still very much in evidence.

One of the greatest mezzo-sopranos, Irene performed with the likes of Placido Domingo and Leontyne Price, and was the principal artist at New York's Metropolitan Opera for 20 years. She could have lived anywhere when she retired from the stage in 1983. Instead of staying in New York or moving to Milan, where she once lived, she chose to go back to her hometown of San Jose, California, to direct the fledgling opera program at the local university.

"When I got back to San Jose, the city looked so poor and desolate," she tells me. "You'd think a bomb had gone off." (Since then, San Jose, nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, has undergone a building boom and somewhat of a modern renaissance. Irene has been a big part of this.)

"I told the university I didn't want to teach voice," she says, "so they put me in charge of something called the ‘Opera Workshop.'" The workshop was a program in which advanced students performed scenes from major operas in the school auditorium. "They had no orchestra pit, no way to make costumes."

Irene teamed up with newly- appointed music director David Rohrbaugh, and after an intensive search they found an old, abandoned theater. They expanded the opera program to include full production. One thing led to another, and a new opera company, Opera San Jose, was born. The two have been partners ever since, and according to Irene, "We have never had a quarrel. Now, don't you think that's a bit unusual?"

Today, Opera San Jose owns two apartment buildings, where it maintains a residency program for many of the finest young professional singers in the nation. In 2004, the company opened a magnificent new 1,100-seat opera house called the California Theater, which ranks among the world's best "intimate" opera houses. Opera San Jose has gained a reputation for its highly polished performances, as well as its many community outreach programs.

Throughout the interview, Irene attributes her amazing singing career and subsequent success with Opera San Jose to "luck" and "being in the right place at the right time." The reason she became famous, she says, is that when "you are surrounded by giants, you become one."

The truth is Irene has always been a hard worker. As a young woman studying under the famed Dr. Otto Mueller in Milan, she took two classes a day for about four years. "I was first in the morning, last in the afternoon," she recalls.

Through Mueller she met Robert Bauer, who had "the largest opera record collection in the world." She visited Bauer often to listen to his records, and he was instrumental in getting her first major role as Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo. Irene's operatic debut was in Oldenburg, Germany, in 1953.

When Irene Dalis sets her mind to a task, she sticks with it until it is accomplished. This applies to her personal life as well. "In 2003, I took a good look at myself. I had grown into quite a roly-poly person," she confides. "I weighed 223 pounds and was only 5-foot-4."

"Furious with the world," Irene marched into a nearby Weight Watchers and "asked the lovely receptionist who did not deserve this old woman with an attitude if I could lose weight without exercising, because I hated exercising." The receptionist replied that she could lose weight, but she wouldn't be able to keep it off.

The following weekend Irene told this story to a group of friends, and "the motherly one" sent her off to a shoe store owned by another friend to get a pair of walking shoes. "I spent $150," Irene says, "and they were too ugly for anything other than walking. So I started walking."

Irene fell in love with walking. In fact, she even drove her car around neighboring blocks to measure how far she'd walked. And she's been walking every day since. She no longer has symptoms of arthritis, and she no longer needs a cane when she goes out for the morning newspaper.

"I lost 95 pounds," she gleefully recalls. "I feel younger now than when I arrived in San Jose 30 years ago."

Her advice to "anyone who cares to listen" is "keep working, keep busy, exercise and watch your diet. ... I eat lots of fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables. Before, when I had a steak, I had a steak! I'm half Greek and half Italian, and when we eat, we eat!"

Also, she says, "Doing something you love is important. If I didn't have Opera San Jose, I would find a volunteer organization to work with. I don't play bridge, knit, play golf, or like to travel."

Irene Dalis has one daughter and two grandsons, both in college, all living in Colorado. She is no stranger to tragedy: In 1990 her house burned down, destroying her grand piano and all her memorabilia. Exactly one month later, her husband died.

The tragedies taught Irene a difficult lesson. "I finally figured out what life is all about," she says. "We have to learn how to live with loss, because we lose in all ways."

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