Dolores Mae Wilson (August 9, 1928 – September 28, 2010) was an American coloratura soprano who had an active international opera career from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Beginning her career with major theatres in Europe, she performed in six seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during the 1950s. She is perhaps best known for originating the title role in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe at the Central City Opera in 1956. After abandoning her opera career, she embarked on a second career as a musical theatre actress; making several appearances on Broadway in the following decades. Early life and education Wilson was born on August 9, 1928, in Philadelphia. After her parents separated, she moved to New York City with her fashion designer mother, who counted Dinah Shore and Loretta Young among her customers. She grew up in the Bronx and attended Catholic schools before entering Jamaica High School from which she graduated. She received classical voice training in NYC with William Hermann and also studied piano, ballet, and tap dancing during her youth. At the age of 16 she began singing on American radio; and her talents were noticed and supported by then General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera Edward Johnson and Met soprano Lucrezia Bori. She traveled to Italy to pursue training in opera in Venice with the famed soprano Toti Dal Monte; partially because her maternal grandparents hailed from that country. She found that the Italian language she had learned through her opera training prepared her poorly for communicating with natives in the language, saying "the Italian I'd learned by studying operas enabled me to talk intelligently only about poisons and suicide and tragic love affairs". Opera career In November 1948 Wilson made her professional opera debut at the Teatro Grande in Brescia under the name Dolores Vilsoni as Rosina in Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Cesare Siepi as her Basilio. She spent her early career performing with major opera houses in Italy; with important house debuts including the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (1950 as Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto), the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1951 as Gilda), and La Fenice (1951 as Gilda). She made her South American debut at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro in 1952 singing both Gilda and Rosina. She returned to the Teatro Grande in Brescia