Theresa Jane Gray Gasparini
Wife, mother, opera singer, storyteller. Born on April 30, 1921, in Toronto; died on Aug. 17, 2014, in Venice, Italy, aged 93.
Theresa Gray was the youngest of four children and the only girl, and her passions and delights were celebrated and nurtured. When she turned her interests to singing, her family encouraged her with formal voice studies beginning at age 19.
Her education at the Toronto (now Royal) Conservatory of Music – where she shared classes with a young pianist named Glenn Gould – and later at the Juilliard School in New York honed a soprano voice that, in 1953, John Watson described in The Globe and Mail as "gorgeously vibrant and splendidly flexible" and imbued "with a kind of sensuous warmth and passion that is completely overwhelming."
Her career included performances on CBC radio and television, including the 1958 television premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, and with the Canadian Opera Company, as well as internationally on stages from New York to Malta.
But for Theresa, her crowning achievement was her married life. She met Giuseppe "Pino" Gasparini while performing in Strauss's A Night in Venice in New York. Seeking realism, the director wanted experienced gondoliers to play the gondolier extras in the play. Pino, a young Venetian doctor in New York on a Fulbright scholarship in plastic surgery, jumped at the chance to earn some extra money. He would also meet the love of his life. In 1956, Pino and Theresa married and made their home in Mira, outside Venice. There, and over the years in Jordan, Yemen, and Malta, she focused on raising their sons, William and Paul. She continued to perform, however, as a recitalist and church soloist in Jordan and in Malta.
Theresa made a point of returning to Canada whenever she could, travelling across Ontario to visit family and friends. Her nieces and nephews treasure memories of listening to recordings of her CBC appearances while she interpreted lyrics and described the magic of performing. To listen to Theresa's recollections was to be there, on stage, with her.
In turn, she delighted in showing friends and family around her adopted home of Venice, pressing upon visitors beautiful glass gifts from the island of Murano. A visit with Theresa meant good food, liberal enjoyment of gin and tonics, and masterful storytelling. Over lingering dinners, and while poring over meticulously kept photo albums, she would recount episodes from her adventurous life.
A favourite tale was the time in 1955 that she and a friend booked a show in Vancouver. Rather than take the train from Toronto, they spotted a newspaper ad seeking someone to drive a car out west. When they picked up the vehicle, the two women were warned not to open the trunk. They agreed, and embarked on an exciting jaunt through Western Canada and the northern United States, crossing the border several times. They dropped the car off uneventfully, only to discover the next day that it had been seized by police – its trunk filled with drugs. Years later, she told the story with all the innocence and surprise the two women must have felt at the time, even as she laughed about her own naiveté.
For all the memories Theresa amassed in a life of travel and performing, it was her family, especially her four grandchildren, and her little dog Tommy, for whom she saved the Italian word tesoro – treasure.
Brenna Clarke Gray is Theresa's grandniece.