Martile Rowland worked hard on her career for years, coming to New York and also try-ing Europe, but the big career just didn’t happen. She finally reached a point where she had just about given up. She put her career on the back burner, met and married her husband, moved back to Colorado Springs and sang quite a bit locally.
A tenor who used to coach with me in New York went to Colorado Springs to sing Manrico; Martile was singing the role of Leonora. She told him she hoped to come to New York to coach. He recommended she work with me.
She came to New York for a coaching and sang one aria, “O luce di quest’ anima.” I picked up the phone to call a conductor I knew well and said, “You have to hear her right away.”
The next day we went to the conductor’s house, and sang the same aria. The reaction was the same as mine had been, “Where have you been?” The Met was called right then and an audition set for the next week.
Her Met audition went very well and she was asked to come back and sing a stage audition for James Levine. She did, and he immediately suggested she cover some roles at the Met. In the meantime, the first conductor didn’t want to lose her, so Martile was made the “cover for the cover” in an upcoming concert opera. The day before the Long Island performance of the opera, it became apparent that the second cover was not prepared. Martile was called in to sing at the last minute, and four days later ended up doing the Carnegie Hall performance as well.
Martile’s career has progressed steadily since then. She was the cover for I Puritani at the Met, and during the very last performance the regular soprano sang the first act. Martile had gone out to dinner for the evening, thinking she would not be performing. The management found her at the restaurant, and said, “You’re going on!” They put her in a costume, she went on–without even a chance to warm up–and finished the mad scene. The audience was so impressed they started tearing up their programs and throwing them as confetti onstage!
Martile is a real dramatic coloratura , in the Sutherland vein. In fact, Joan Sutherland came to hear her performance of Paoline in Donizetti’s Poliuto with Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall last season. After complimenting her on the performance, Ms. Sutherland said, “You’re a very brave girl; I would never try that role!”
She is a very brave girl. She takes a lot of chances, and she’s a very exciting singer.
