This interview was originally recorded on April 9th, 2025.
The Oral History Project is supported by the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation.

Jane Shaulis, mezzo soprano 

Known to audiences through her live performances, recordings, radio, television, and film, American mezzo-soprano Jane Shaulis was a staple of the Metropolitan Opera’s roster for 27 years, appearing in 561 performances and heard in 67 radio broadcasts. Before joining the Met, she performed with the New York City Opera for 15 years, appearing in over 60 roles. She also sang with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and San Diego Opera; performed with many major orchestras, including those of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh; and appeared at the Spoleto, Aspen, Chautauqua, and Artpark festivals. Her notable appearances at the Met include the world premieres of John Corigliano and William M. Hoffman’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Philip Glass and David Henry Hwang’s The Voyage.

A native of New Jersey, Shaulis studied at the Academy of Vocal Arts, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Westminster Choir College. She serves as the president and artistic director of the nonprofit organization Opera Index and is a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists’ board of governors.

Transcript

Marc A. Scorca: Jane Shaulis, welcome. I'm so thrilled you're here at the Opera Center to participate in our Oral History Project. Thanks for being here.

Jane Shaulis: Oh, it's my pleasure.

Marc A. Scorca: Jane, just to get it out of the way, I have known you for more than 40 years now, and it's just remarkable how the decades have passed. So, people may hear us reminisce a bit, but we go back a long way. But I've never sat down to talk to you in this way, and I know that you wanna start by chatting a little bit about your childhood. You were born in New Jersey, if I'm not mistaken?

Jane Shaulis: I was born in Millville, New Jersey, (Southern New Jersey), and I wanted to talk a little bit about my music upbringing. I had a sister, two years older. Mother taught us both to play the piano when we were four years old. And we concertized and I used to laugh about the fact that I went through my childhood with a bruised right side, because mother would say, "Go in and practice, girls", and my sister being two years older, did all the frills and everything on the top, and I did the oom-pah-pahs on the bottom. And if I wasn't doing anything correctly, I would get an elbow in the rib from my sister. So we concertized a lot in South New Jersey, and my sister, Zola progressed and actually won the Naumburg (International Piano) Competition in the late 70's, and was a protégé of both Rudolf Serkin and, in later years, Arturo (Arthur) Rubinstein. So, my singing debut actually was when I was five years old at the Grand Auditorium in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Zola and I were there. We used to do weekend performances at the Grand Auditorium. And mother used to say, "Well, Zola is our pianist, but Jane will be our singer". And I did my singing debut in the Grand Auditorium one Sunday evening, when we were both there concertizing.

Marc A. Scorca: Do you remember what you sang?

Jane Shaulis: Daddy's Little Sweetheart, but I used to sing all the Deanna Durbin music. My voice, of course, hadn't changed yet. And I was a little high soprano, and sang all the time around the house.

Marc A. Scorca: Let me continue down this vein a little bit. And for the record, you asked me to hold off on asking you who brought you to your first opera, so I'll get to that question in a moment. But at what point in this youthful musical life and your mother saying, "Jane's gonna be our singer", did singing become a little more self-propelled in you, a little bit more of your own thing, and not your mother telling you to sing with your sister?

Jane Shaulis: Well, Zola was two years older and was two years more proficient with the piano, so I got bored with that and realized I couldn't be competitive also. So, I think the first time I took voice lessons, I was maybe around 12, and then through high school, studied with actually a young man who studied at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. And my mother took me...we lived in Delaware, and I went to the Wilmington Music School and took actual voice lessons from him. So, it was kind of high school age that I was developing my voice.

Marc A. Scorca: And it was becoming your own thing, as it were.

Jane Shaulis: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: So let me get back to my regular question of - who brought you to your first opera?

Jane Shaulis: Opera was not something in our family. We were concertizing, so classical music was definitely there. My mother loved to listen to Mario Lanza records, but my first actual opera performance that I attended was when I was a student at Westminster Choir College. And (with) friends, we came to New York to the old Met and saw a Rigoletto production with Robert Merrill and (Richard) Tucker. So that was my first official opera performance that I went to.

Marc A. Scorca: So, Westminster Choir College. And at some point, someone said, "You know, Jane, you can actually do opera, serious singing, as a career". Who's the first person who said, "You actually can do something here?"

Jane Shaulis: My professor at Westminster Choir College. I was not the most astute student, and he would just keep saying to me, "But you're going to be our singer. You are going to have a career". Of course, Westminster Choir College, we were talking about oratorio. So, all of my friends had church jobs, and I would go and be a soloist in their churches. So, I learned a lot of the oratorio repertoire, but opera was not really in my purview at that point. And even afterward, I went from Westminster to Academy of Vocal Arts, and yes, I performed opera, but I kept thinking that the comfortable thing for me was the oratorio. And I thought, "Well, maybe I could have a Maureen Forrester career". That was kind of in my most positive thoughts,

Marc A. Scorca: Not a bad role model in terms of artistry and gorgeous voice. And, of course, in preparing for this, I read that you went to AVA (Academy of Vocal Arts), one of the great vocal development programs in the country, and also Curtis. So, between Westminster, AVA and Curtis, you have three blue ribbons associated with your musical development.

Jane Shaulis: Yes. There was a time period in between AVA and when I finally got to Curtis. I did have some vocal decline, and I was very lucky. I did an audition at Curtis and did not receive a scholarship to go there. But the fabulous conductor, Max Rudolf took me under his wing and said, "I want to work with you". And my vocal production was very, very dark, and he taught me how to sing a pure 'ah', and really got me in shape to then do another audition at Curtis, at which point I was accepted into the school. So, it has not been fast and clear sailing. There have been bumps along the road.

Marc A. Scorca: And you've managed to get to the other side of them.

Jane Shaulis: Yes. And luckily from Curtis, then I coached with Felix Popper. And Otto Guth from San Francisco Opera was also a wonderful coach there. And I got then through my association with Felix, my first auditions at New York City Opera.

Marc A. Scorca: And Felix Popper, for those who don't know - just a fixture of New York City Opera in those days. Such an instrumental influence in the music staff of New York City Opera.

Jane Shaulis: Oh, absolutely. Wonderful coach and mentor.

Marc A. Scorca: So, City Opera, which is where I first got to know you. And you had many years there during, frankly, some of City Opera's halcyon years. And I try to describe to people what the City Opera experience was like in those days. Company's gone - we'll never have anything back like that. What was City Opera like for you in those days?

Jane Shaulis: I was one of, I think in those days, 18 or 20 house singers, and we did everything. Well, in those days we had, what, 11 productions in a season: 11 in the fall season, and then another 10 or 11 in the spring season. We went on tour to both Los Angeles and down at the Kennedy Center in the spring. It was a real training experience of just learning what it was like to become an opera singer. There wasn't time to go out and celebrate after an opening night, because you had a rehearsal at 10 o'clock the next morning. Actually at one time, I went into the administration and said, "I haven't had a day off in six weeks. I'm exhausted". And it was, "Well, maybe you need to call in sick one day". And it's like, "Well, but I can't do that, because I have these rehearsals; I'm responsible for this and that". And over the years, there were no divas at City Opera. Even the people that were singing the lead roles, we were a family. And I can remember a girl coming in, who had had a European career and singing, I believe it was Carmen, and really tried to be a diva and (was) very demanding. And it was like, "No, that's not who we are. That's not what we do". We were always under-rehearsed. Technical rehearsals took priority, and there were some times when we didn't even finish at a dress rehearsal, the entire opera. And was it thrown together? Maybe sometimes, yes. But the public could always come to a performance at City Opera and know that they were going to have a good cast, no matter what the production was.

Marc A. Scorca: Night after night after night...

Jane Shaulis: It was interesting opera, even in the world premieres that we did, but even the traditional operas were done well.

Marc A. Scorca: With really good singers.

Jane Shaulis: Yes. There was one time when I was out. I think I was at a summer festival, and the baritone had been out playing tennis all day, when he was going to sing a lead role that evening, and Tito Capobianco actually gave me a call and said, "Well, how's it going and everything?" And my answer to him was, "This singer needs a full-time contract at City Opera to know what it is to become a performer, and what you have to do, and the work that it takes, and the stamina that it takes". I mean, we really worked hard, and for great rewards.

Marc A. Scorca: And those great rewards were the satisfaction of making really good art night after night? What were the rewards?

Jane Shaulis: Knowing that we were part of a bigger thing. Taking it from the rehearsal room to the performance stage is always rewarding. And knowing that we were a part of that.

Marc A. Scorca: And that sometimes you're improvising to get to the end, but you were a team, you were all a team doing it.

Jane Shaulis: Yes. Going in second cast of a production with no stage rehearsal, and sometimes being thrown into a production, we talked each other through the productions. While we were on stage, we were talking, saying, "Okay, now you're gonna go over and do this. Now you're gonna go here and you're going to do that". And the camaraderie wasn't only among the principal artists. I got thrown in to sing Mamma Lucia in the Cavalleria production, with a one week rehearsal period to learn the role and do it. And there was a whole pantomime that Frank Casaro, the director, had done for the prologue, and the supernumeraries talked me through it. The chorus was always talking us through things and I mean, we really were a family.

Marc A. Scorca: It's an incredible spirit. It really is.

Jane Shaulis: Incredible talent.

Marc A. Scorca: And then you went over to The Met and had, I think, 27 years at The Met?

Jane Shaulis: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: And my guess is that some of those qualities you've just described would also be present at The Met, and yet it was also probably very different. So what was different as you went across the plaza?

Jane Shaulis: Different pressure. Different pressure to be more perfect. When you go on stage and my first, how many years, were with James Levine in the pit. Face it, The Metropolitan Opera is the pinnacle, and you have arrived and you are still doing the job that you were trained to do, but the pressure is just so much different. And the house is bigger, the audience is different. It's the big time.

Marc A. Scorca: And some of that pressure, I assume, is just you on yourself because you realize 'this is the big time'. I need to really deliver every night that I'm on that stage.

Jane Shaulis: Correct. And also at The Met, the staff is larger, and in any rehearsal there are, I used to say, (and I say this in my masterclasses), seven or eight people in the room that are hired to make sure that you do the best 'you' that you can. And you have to have a shield to protect you, to know when criticism is good. And you have to be able to take it. And I always say, "Wow, I got through that, and I didn't cry, and I didn't leave the room". Because there are people, and that is their job. They are hired to make sure that the production is perfect.

Marc A. Scorca: Wow. You just defined pressure. I read through some interviews that you've done in preparing for this, and I just love - it was around Opera Theatre of St. Louis. You were, I think, in a Turn of the Screw there, and you gave an interview and you talked about being a comprimario singer. And I just loved the things that you said. And I'm going to feed you a few of the quotes that I drew from the interview, and I'd love you to say more about them. In one you said, "I've been successful in my career, because I've never considered them small parts". So you were just a virtuoso of the small parts, the Mamma Lucia and others, but you say you never treated them as small parts. What do you mean by that?

Jane Shaulis: When you are a part of the production, you are part of the production. So, even if you've come out on stage to sing two lines, you are in that production. You have been hired because of your expertise. And you just have to do the best that you can and somehow make an impression and delight in being part of the whole. So you can never (and this is one of the things that I tell the kids) apologize for your part in an opera, or in anything. You have been hired to do that. Do it to the best that you can, which is expected.

Marc A. Scorca: You know, you said something in that interview that I'd never thought about, and it's just so true. I actually quoted it over a lunch I just had, and the people said, "Yes, absolutely". You said that as a comprimario you have to 'create a character in a very short time'. And again, that just rang so true. But explain what you mean by that.

Jane Shaulis: When all the characters are different...when I was playing Suzuki in Madam Butterfly, I am to be an attentive Japanese person. You have to figure out where your body is going, what your positions are. And if I'm playing Mamma Lucia, I'm an older woman. One of the things as I mentioned, being thrown into Mamma Lucia at New York City Opera, as I was standing in the wings getting ready to go out on stage, I looked at Julius Rudel, who was the head of the company and conducting that evening, and I said, "Do I look old enough?" And he put his fist in the middle of my back, and he said, "That's where you need to be old". And I carried that with me through all of my career...is how does the character move? How does the character walk? Doing character parts never ever meant singing in a character way, always using the full support, the full voice - never characterizing the vocalism.

Marc A. Scorca: And it's true. Santuzza, staying with Cavalleria, has the whole opera to develop a character. You've gotta be Mamma Lucia in a very short time.

Jane Shaulis: From the minute you walk out, yes.

Marc A. Scorca: It's not developing. This is who you are, and you've gotta deliver that on the spot.

Jane Shaulis: Exactly. And there were times in the rehearsal room where a director was, "I need this, I need this, I need this". And as I matured and got older in my career, I gave myself permission to say, "I'll find her. You have to give me another 48 hours. I'm going to find the walk or the movements. Just be patient. It'll get there".

Marc A. Scorca: You said also, and this is semi-serious, but I took it seriously that 'as a comprimario, you sing little, but you're on stage a lot, and you have to figure out what you're doing all that time.'

Jane Shaulis: I learned this from Dino Yannopoulos, when I was a student at Curtis. He had us write autobiographies of our characters. In Marriage of Figaro, for instance, the Countess eats something different for breakfast than the Susanna eats. So we wrote autobiographies. We learned how to be present always on stage, whether we were just standing there...One of the things that I have found is energy in the eyes. If your eyes are alive, you're not looking bored. You can stand still. And actually standing still can even bring more attention to your character than moving. When I was doing the Church Lady in Susannah with Carlisle Floyd as the director, and I was a young singer and moving my arms a lot and everything, and he said, "No, do not move". He said, "You are the head of the church. You don't like Susannah, and I need the nod of your head to be significant". And he took my arms away from me. And I have to say that when we took the production from Artpark, and when we did it in San Diego, I got booed at every curtain call, which was the biggest compliment, because it worked. It really worked. So, you have to be in the moment on stage. Dino would come up to us if he thought we were daydreaming, and he would say, "Talk to me". And we had to have a dialogue as to what was happening on stage and in the moment in the opera.

Marc A. Scorca: So, talk to him as if you were talking as that character.

Jane Shaulis: Yes. And what your reaction was to what was happening. And it was great training because I became what I call the 'che dite' girl. Many, many times, I would say to the soprano 'che dite'. And she would sing her 10 minute aria. I had to be interested in exactly everything she was saying. And to be a supportive colleague in helping her get through that tough aria. To be there for her and to give her energy.

Marc A. Scorca: Did you have a role model in your work?

Jane Shaulis: Not really. I loved watching Mignon Dunn, and was very lucky in between my New York City Opera and Met (contracts), I got to sing a few of the major mezzo roles. And I did get to do some performances of Amneris in Aida. And Mignon was so gracious and coached me on the role and said, "I'm not going to teach you vocally, but I need to give you my roadmap of 'when you sing this note, start upstage, brighten the vowel and walk downstage', and it's going to sound as though you have crescendoed greatly". Little hints like that, that I was extremely appreciative of. But I always enjoyed watching and hearing her performances.

Marc A. Scorca: Wonderful artist. But you said in an interview that the life of the big role just didn't fit as comfortably for you, as being the artist who brings the small character to life.

Jane Shaulis: I found that in doing, for instance, the Amneris, I was making myself crazy all day long testing my vocal cords. "Is it there? Is it there?" And also the pressure of carrying the production. And it was a role that I was not accustomed to. And quite frankly, at that point, I was in my middle forties and had a good reputation for singing the Bertas and the Marcellinas, and had trouble getting hired to do the bigger things. So I was very comfortable doing what I knew how to do.

Marc A. Scorca: What you knew how to do so well.

Jane Shaulis: Thank you.

Marc A. Scorca: So, there you are at The Met for 27 years. And again, the notion of being a house singer, the way you just mentioned you were a house singer at City Opera - at The Met too. And I talk to so many artists whose lives are torn apart in some way by always being in a different city each month of: what are the accommodations? How do I get there? What do I do with my family? Young singers whose possessions are in storage, because they're on the road all the time, and they stay with a sister when they're between gigs. But a house singer, as you were, you actually had a kind of normal life (if you can have a normal life in opera) where you left home and you went to work at one of the greatest opera houses in the world, and you did your job. So, it's a very different life for a singer and a rewarding one for you?

Jane Shaulis: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was very interesting because as I said, I did have the few years where I did get to do Azucena and Amneris and Herodias, and when I got the contract initially at The Met to be a house singer, I went into my agent's office, Robert Lombardo, and I said, "Is my career over?" Because I did have aspirations of maybe continuing to sing (principal roles). I loved doing Herodias, because it's a meaty role, but still the character part. And I loved singing it. And he looked at me and he said, "Yes, your career is probably over, because you're never going to leave". And it was like, "Oh, well". And then I really settled into the reality of that after a year or so, and the reality was, I can still go to the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer and do productions there. I could still have free time, but also having a now 50-some year relationship at home, where my husband was working at New York City Opera for 35 years. We were based in New York. Yes, it was a privilege and a real gift.

Marc A. Scorca: A life in the arts without having to really sacrifice your whole life for it. You could actually have a life and a life in the arts at the same time.

Jane Shaulis: Exactly.

Marc A. Scorca: So, I didn't know back then when I was at City Opera, that you and Joe were already an item. You've worked with so many different personalities, and I don't necessarily wanna know names, but I'll give you a little rabbit fire here. What makes a great conductor?

Jane Shaulis: Attentiveness, breathing with the singers, knowing every measure of the score and loving letting us know that they are loving the music, is the big thing. That's why I loved working with James Levine so much. We got the smiling face up on stage. He rehearsed the orchestra in the rehearsal room, but when the singers were in front of him, he was our conductor. And yes, at The Met, we have a prompter, but if we were ever in trouble, Jimmy was there for us. And this is, I think, the definition really of a good conductor is being very attentive to what's happening on stage.

Marc A. Scorca: What makes a good stage director?

Jane Shaulis: Preparedness. Knowing the score, knowing and being prepared before you walk into the room, knowing what the plan for the production is, knowing what staging you want, and then being pliable to the performers. If there is something that isn't physically working for a performer, being able to say, "Okay, that was not necessarily my original idea, but let's work something out. Cooperation, respect.

Marc A. Scorca: What makes a good colleague on stage?

Jane Shaulis: There again, respect and preparedness. This is something that I always really, really stress with young singers. Being a good colleague is being prepared when you walk into the room. Don't waste anybody's time. And even in the rehearsals, don't be time intensive. Don't be so needy that you're drawing attention only to yourself. And just being encouraging, not critical. Not you know, "But the director told me to stand over here, why are you there?" You know? Just cooperative and kind.

Marc A. Scorca: Nice, thank you for that. What I also so admire about you at this point in your career is your support of young artists. And I see you here at the Opera Center from time to time with auditions for Opera Index. What is Opera Index?

Jane Shaulis: Opera Index is a 41-some year organization that was formed by a man who basically was just having soirées in his living room and inviting opera singers to come in. And it started a competition in 1984, and we support young singers. We have a competition every year in the fall. And since I have come on board, we have doubled our award money. In October, we awarded more than $80,000 to 35 young singers. We have recital programs, actually here at the Opera Center. We support some of our award winners to do summer European study. And also, I just started a role study program, where for some of our past award winners - show me the contract and I'll give you some money to be able to learn the role or to refresh the role. So, this is something that we've just now started to initiate.

Marc A. Scorca: That's fantastic.

Jane Shaulis: I am so proud of the fact that we're able to really help the young singers and support them. And my husband and I, we go to performances. Actually, one of my girls is doing her senior recital at Manhattan School of Music this evening that I'll be attending. We try to be present, and physically also support.

Marc A. Scorca: Oh, that's just wonderful.

Jane Shaulis: It's exciting; it's very exciting.

Marc A. Scorca: You also have a leadership role with the American Guild of Musical Artists, that we all know as AGMA, the union for singers and stage directors and stage managers. So, what is your role and how do you see that role in the field?

Jane Shaulis: I'm a board member and actually on the executive council. And I was the co-chairman of the Work Rules and Contracts Committee. I'm still on that committee. And once a month, we look at the contracts and waivers and negotiations of our signatories, which are opera companies and ballet companies, here in the United States. And we analyze, we give permission to 'Yes/No', but we are there to protect our members, which are singers, dancers, stage managers, and directors and supernumeraries. So, I'm primarily looking at contracts in regulations and protections; what new things can we do to help our members? Just recently, we initiated a proposal to a lot of our opera companies to give upfront payments to our solo artists. And this is something that we are definitely pushing for, and it is catching popularity now.

Marc A. Scorca: Because there's no doubt that during Covid, what we discovered was that there were so many artists who had put in weeks of rehearsal, performances were canceled, and there was no payment because they're paid on a per performance basis. And even now that we're beyond that, artists arrive in town, have costs for housing or just distance costs, but they don't start getting paid in the old way until they start performing, and somehow have to have the cash flow to support themselves in the interim. It makes perfect sense.

Jane Shaulis: Yeah. I'm very happy that we initiated that and companies now are (agreeing). Because for a singer, you have to be completely prepared musically when you arrive at your job, meaning coachings, lessons, and also doing deposits for the apartments, or wherever you're going to be staying in the new city. So, this is very, very helpful. I'm very happy that I was one of the people that really helped initiate that, and push to improve.

Marc A. Scorca: Good for you.

Jane Shaulis: We're working to really help our members.

Marc A. Scorca: That's great. I love that you are continuing to stay so engaged as an advocate for art and artists, even in the years of your non-retirement retirement, because it's hardly retiring.

Jane Shaulis: I'm an opera singer that always loved going to opera.

Marc A. Scorca: And you loved your colleagues.

Jane Shaulis: Well, a lot of it was from the support part of it, of being there.

Marc A. Scorca: So Jane, you must be approached by singers, whether it's at auditions for Opera Index, or in any circumstance. When you're going up to MSM tonight, there'll be lots of singers, and they must ask you for advice. What's at the center of Jane Shaulis's advice to the aspiring singer.

Jane Shaulis: Don't give up. If you have that passion, continue to pursue it, no matter how you do it. Keep learning, keep studying, keep performing - no matter if it is your mother's book club. Say, "I want to sing a couple arias and try this out for you. See what you think". And if the opportunities are not there, the blueprint that you have in the arts will carry you through your life. There are a lot of non-profit organizations associated with music that you can work for, but you will always have that base of your appreciation and knowledge of the music. Tito Capobianco used to constantly tell us when I was a student at AVA, "You'll never be able to go to an opera again and completely enjoy it, because you're going to be watching it with a critical eye. You're going to be listening with a critical ear". So any student has that as the floor plan, basically.

Marc A. Scorca: Along with the discipline and the tenacity and the language skills and the skills to collaborate. I mean, there's so much that you can use in your life that you derive from training in the arts.

Jane Shaulis: Exactly.

Marc A. Scorca: Jane Shaulis, what a pleasure to talk to you, to capture these stories. I know there are so many more. I just applaud all the good work you're doing. I have applauded you in the theater for more than 40 years. It's nice to be able to continue applauding you. Thanks so much for your time today.

Jane Shaulis: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Marc A. Scorca: We'll see you soon. Take care.

Jane Shaulis: Okay.