Dodi Protero

Dodi Protero (March 13, 1931 – April 22, 2007) was a Canadian operatic soprano and Broadway performer born Dorothy Ann MacGregor, later adopting the name McIlraith, in Toronto, Ontario. Her international singing career spanned from 1955 to 1980, encompassing opera houses and festivals across Europe and North America, after which she devoted herself to voice instruction at several prominent institutions.

Protero began her formal vocal training in Toronto under James Rossellino in 1949, continuing with him through 1959. Her earliest professional stage experience came with his Rossellino Opera Company in the early 1950s, where she sang the role of Annina in Verdi's La traviata. She subsequently studied with Toti dal Monte in Venice from 1955 to 1957, Ferdinand Grossmann in Vienna in 1957, and Lorenz Fehenberger in Munich in 1963. Later in her career she worked with Rosa Bok in New York City from 1967 to 1970 and with Oren Brown from 1975 to 1976.

Her European opera debut came in 1955 as Papagena in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Teatro di San Carlo. That same year she won the Siena International Singing Competition, and in 1957 she took first prize at the singing competition of the Salzburg Mozarteum. During the late 1950s she appeared at the Bielefeld Opera, the Oper der Stadt Köln, and the Wuppertal Opera. In 1959 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Clarice in Haydn's Il mondo della luna and also performed in Mozart concerts there in 1959 and 1960. She sang Papagena at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1960.

Protero maintained a long association with the Canadian Opera Company, making her first appearance with the organization in 1960 as Ciboletta in Johann Strauss II's Eine Nacht in Venedig. She returned to the company repeatedly over the following decade, taking on roles including Gretel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel in 1962 and 1963, Musetta in Puccini's La bohème in 1965, Parasha in Stravinsky's Mavra in 1965, Oona in the world premiere of Raymond Pannell's The Luck of Ginger Coffey in 1967, Rosina in The Barber of Seville in 1970, and Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio in 1970. She also appeared with the Sadler's Wells Opera during the 1960s and toured Europe with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg in 1963. Additional guest engagements took her to the Calgary Opera, New Orleans Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, the Stratford Festival, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Teatro Massimo, the Vancouver Opera, and the Teatro di San Carlo on multiple occasions.

In 1965, Protero appeared on Broadway in the play Oliver!, portraying the role of Mrs. Bedwin in the revival of Lionel Bart's musical. That Broadway credit placed her career alongside her concurrent operatic work, which that same year included her COC appearances as Musetta and Parasha.

Following her retirement from the stage in 1980, Protero built a second career as a voice teacher. She held faculty positions at the Banff School of Fine Arts from 1975 to 1982, the University of Illinois from 1976 to 1987, Opera Music Theater International in New Jersey from 1989 to 1993, the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia from 1992 to 1995, and the Juilliard School from 1991 until her death in 2007. Among her students was tenor Mario Frangoulis. She was married for many years to tenor Alan Crofoot and served on the executive board of the New Jersey Opera. Protero died in New York City on April 22, 2007, at the age of 76.