Article

Theresa Gray

Published Online July 30, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Theresa (Jane) Gray. Soprano, b Toronto 30 Apr 1921. She began voice studies in 1940 with Helen Plaxton and continued them 1944-6 at the TCM with Albert Kennedy and 1946-8 at the Juilliard School. She was coached privately 1948-54 by Arpad Sandor while studying voice with Mario Pagano.

Gray, Theresa

Theresa (Jane) Gray. Soprano, b Toronto 30 Apr 1921. She began voice studies in 1940 with Helen Plaxton and continued them 1944-6 at the TCM with Albert Kennedy and 1946-8 at the Juilliard School. She was coached privately 1948-54 by Arpad Sandor while studying voice with Mario Pagano. She made her radio debut 29 Dec 1947 on the CBC and her Toronto recital debut 22 May 1951 at the Heliconian Club. Gray sang Magda Sorel in Menotti's The Consul for the Opera Festival Association of Toronto (later the COC) in 1953 and 1954 and also for that work's North American TV premiere (17 Jan 1954) on the CBC. Also for CBC TV she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (1953) and the Governess in Britten's The Turn of the Screw (TV premiere, 1958). She sang with orchestras in Toronto (1953) and Vancouver (1955).

In the USA Gray appeared in musical comedy and was a member 1954-6 of the New York Co-Opera Group, with which she sang the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, the title role in Tosca, and other roles. After her marriage in the late 1950s she lived in Yemen, in Jordan (where she was a recitalist and church soloist), and in Malta (where she sang in Messiah in 1973). Writing in the Globe and Mail, 31 Jul 1953, John Watson said: 'Her voice is gorgeously vibrant and splendidly flexible. Not without her faults of technique, she is capable of imbuing her singing with a kind of sensuous warmth and passion that is completely overwhelming'.