Soprano’s illustrious career a nod to God’s grace

Larry Lydon, a music and opera fixture for a half century, counts his blessings for knowing and working with local opera soprano La Vergne Monette at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Orleans.

“She brought a measure of musical beauty to the church,” he said, recalling his years as the parish organist and music director and Monette’s eight years as cantor. “I enjoyed my years working with her enormously. We sang things at St. Anthony in Italian, German and French. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do.


“One Easter, we sang the ‘Regina Caeli.’ She sang it beautifully. I could do things like that with her because she brought her years and years of experience of the opera. She’s a very devout lady, and her devotion to our Lord comes through.”


Monette’s extensive career, traversing New Orleans, Baltimore, New York, Pennsylvania, Europe and back, earned her the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award in 2017 from the National Opera Association and the 2020 Gambit Big Easy Lifetime Achievement in Classical Arts award from the New Orleans Opera.

But it’s not awards that Monette is most thankful for in her career. Most precious to her are God’s gifts of her Catholic faith and her voice, which she used to sing for St. John Paul II at his 1987 outdoor Mass celebration at the University of New Orleans.


“It was wonderful,” Monette said about singing “Taste and See” as a soloist and in a choir. “Besides that, we had all the famous people in New Orleans – pianist Ronnie Kole, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain. They were legends. I thought it was such a privilege to sing for a now-saint.”

Love of opera began early
Monette credits her parents, Adolph and FloraMell Monette, for exposing her to classical music at a young age, gathering as a family around the television to watch the “Voice of Firestone” and hearing the “Bell Telephone Hour” on the radio.

“When I was 3, I was trying to spell Tchaikovsky,” she said.

Recognizing her talent, her parents engaged Xavier Preparatory School choir director and musician Nelson Francis for private voice lessons. Monette worked with Francis throughout high school.

She had opportunities to sing in traveling choirs and school plays, including her first opera, “The Bohemian Girl.” She also sang  in “Le Nozze di Figaro” as Countess Almaviva with New Orleans’ bass-baritone Norman Treigle directing.

As a teenager, Monette recalled auditioning and singing for the Catholic Students Mission Crusade held at Notre Dame Seminary.

She also received tutelage at Xavier University of Louisiana from another local music legend – Blessed Sacrament Sister Elise Sisson – who was responsible for the school’s opera and classical music. Sister Elise inspired Monette and helped her acquire a Xavier scholarship for music.

“She was a famous artist herself, and Sister Elise liked my voice and said she would take me as a student,” Monette said. “I got to sing in ‘Aida’ (with Francis) at a very young age at 19 at the Municipal Auditorium.”

Her teenage friend Consuela Moore Provost, who shared her love of singing and opera and accompanied her to many operas at the Municipal Auditorium, later became a writer and musician using the professional name Sybil Kein.

“When I was growing up, they would be in the backyard singing operatic arias,” singer/musician Deacon John Moore, Consuela’s brother, recalled.

Provost once told Monette, “You cannot die without your voice being left for posterity,” and she coordinated the recording of Monette’s brilliance on two local CDs – “Songs of Romance” in 2000 and “Creole Classique Music for a New Orleans Soiree.”


“The recording on Creole Classique is very beautiful,” said Givonna Joseph, a mezzo soprano and founder and artistic director of OperaCréole, now celebrating its 10th year. “Her voice is absolutely gorgeous,”

Joseph nominated Monette for Gambit’s award last year.

“The fact that she sang with some of the greats at the New York City Opera,” Joseph said. “She had a wonderful career.”

Toured extensively
After graduating from Xavier University in 1958, the young Monette began her master’s degree in music. She won the 1960 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions as a soprano and appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as Manon Lescaut in “In quelle trine morbide,” with conductor Kurt Adler.

She toured extensively before earning a master’s of music with vocal emphasis in classical and performance and a minor in history and piano at Indiana University in Bloomington in 1973.

During the summers in between her master’s work, she sang in programs in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New York, where she performed at a Town Hall concert and in Metropolitan Opera of New York summer concerts in 1965 with William Warfield at the Lewisohn Stadium amphitheater. She also recorded a television program with professional opera singers.

Monette sang with symphonies in Buffalo, Baltimore, Duluth, Minneapolis and Sara ota and has special memories of a recital tour she made in Finland as a solo artist and her audition tours throughout Europe.

Lydon recalled Beverly Sills hiring her as a principal singer with the New York City Opera and her being a principal singer in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” for the New York City Opera. Also, in 1966, she was cast as Anna Gomez in the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan’s performance of “The Consul” with the New York City Opera.

“I was just a quiet girl from New Orleans, and I did all this traveling,” Monette said.

While Monette trained with some of the best performers at the time, she cherished working with Rosa Ponselle, a protégée of the famous tenor Enrico Caruso. She credits Ponselle’s guidance during her debut as Mimi in “La Boheme.” Monette said she adored Ponselle’s “dark, rich lovely (voice) quality and the pathos and beauty of her renditions.”

In 1968, she sang with Treigle in Bizet’s “Carmen,” where she was the first black woman to break the color barrier and sing a lead part in an opera with the New Orleans Opera House Association, Joseph recalled.

Teacher, cantor
After her professional career, she returned home to New Orleans in the 1980s to teach vocal performance and beginning languages in music at Delgado Community College and Xavier University and also at St. Rita School in New Orleans. She waited for the right time to teach music.
 
“I love the little ones” she said, adding how she coaxed and told stories to children to obtain their best performances. “I’m still struggling with myself that I didn’t ask the Lord what he wanted me to do. I just assumed because I had this voice that (singing) was what I was supposed to do. I knew I couldn’t be an artist and give the proper time and training to a child. Others said because I taught so many, I was bringing my talent to them.”

Monette has also cantored or sung at many archdiocesan churches, especially at weddings and funerals in the 7th and 9th Wards of New Orleans. She performed as a soloist at the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair at the UNICEF Pavilion.

Before COVID-19, Monette was singing on Sunday mornings with the St. Augustine Church choir. While she hasn’t returned regularly, she did sing “Via Dolorosa” on Good Friday there. It’s one of her favorites.

“It’s very moving,” she said. “It is so meaningful. It goes deep into my soul.”

Monette took advice she received from a college friend to not waste her God-given gifts.

“Singing is a joy in realizing that God has given me a gift, and I use it for his glory,” she said. “I have been given many blessings in this career and I’m grateful for all the people and experiences in my life. For a shy person, I came to life in opera (roles).”

Lydon said Monette is the essence of what New Orleans is famous for.

“And, with her (Creole) background, her operatic training and experience and her Catholic observance of the faith, she’s exactly the person – if you were writing a book on New Orleans – you would create that character,” Lydon said. “I’m thrilled to have known the real thing. It’s exactly what you’d expect of New Orleans.”

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