I spent yesterday afternoon with retired opera singer Mary (Meyers) Linder at her home in Tryon. Mary and husband Robert are working as vocal coaches to the cast of AMADEUS.Mary was a chorister for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1985 until her retirement in 2008. She sang in at least 500 productions there...with the very best singers in the world. (Rob worked there too, though not as a tenured chorister.)
Mary is helping me through about a dozen lines that require me to speak French convincingly. She is precise in her instruction, deliberate, encouraging. As we sat by the pool, she aimed a small mirror towards my lips...lightly closed her eyes and listened as I fumbled and stumbled over “e’s inside o’s” and such.
There is a touching gracefulness to instruction given by one with nothing to prove and a lifetime to share.
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