Mary Costa

Mary Kathleen Costa is a retired American opera singer and actress, who provided the voice of Aurora in Disney's 1959 animated feature film Sleeping Beauty.
In 1952, she auditioned for the starring role of Aurora in the then-upcoming Disney film Sleeping Beauty. Walt Disney called her personally within hours of the audition to inform her that the part was hers. Her role in Sleeping Beauty remains her most successful, renowned and critically acclaimed film role to date. She continues to do promotional appearances for Disney, most recently for the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty.
Outside of Disney, she has appeared in over 44 operatic roles on stages throughout the world, including Jules Massenet's Manon, Verdi's in La Traviata, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Norman Dello Joio's Blood Moon, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, and Leonard Bernstein's Candide.
In November 1999, she received the prestigious Disney Legends award, and her handprints are now a permanent part of the Disney Legends Plaza at the entrance to Disney Studios. In 2021, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
==Role==
Profile - Aurora.jpeg|Aurora(Sleeping Beauty)
==Gallery==
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto14.png|Publicity photo of Mary Costa with Princess Aurora (in her Briar Rose disguise).
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto1.jpg|Costa posing for a photoshoot in front of Eyvind Earle's paintings.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto6.jpg|Costa reviewing the storyboard for "The Curse is Fulfilled" sequence from Sleeping Beauty with Eric Larson.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto10.jpg|Costa discussing the design of Princess Aurora with Marc Davis.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto7.jpg|Costa discussing the background paintings with Thelma Witmer.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto12.jpg|Costa discussing the background paintings with Frank Armitage.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto13.jpg|Costa showing off a production cel of Briar Rose during a visit to the Disney studio paint lab, c. May 1958.
File:SleepingBeauty1959PublicityPhoto15.png|Costa reviewing dailes from Sleeping Beauty with Joe Rinaldi (on the left) and Eric Larson (on the right).
Mary costa sleeping beauty interview.JPG|Mary Costa in Once Upon a Dream: The Making of Sleeping Beauty.
==Trivia==
*As of 2024, Costa is the only voice actress of the original three Disney Princesses still living; Adriana Caselotti (Snow White) and Ilene Woods (Cinderella) passed away in 1997 and 2010, respectively. She is also the last surviving original cast member of Sleeping Beauty.
*Costa is the only living original voice actress of a Disney Princess not to return in Ralph Breaks the Internet.
== References ==
*Cummings, David (ed.), "Costa, Mary, International Who's Who in Classical Music, Routledge, 2003, p. 158. ISBN 185743174X
*Hayes, John "2 with Futures to Follow: Mary Costa and Marilyn Horne", Billboard 16 May 1964 p. 38
*Hollis, Tim and Ehrbar, Greg, Mouse tracks: the story of Walt Disney Records, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 52. ISBN 1578068495
*Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce, "Costa, Mary", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1996. (accessed via Encyclopedia.com. 26 January 2010)
*Metropolitan Opera, Performance Record: Costa, Mary (Soprano), on the MetOpera Database
*Sleeman, Elizabeth (ed.), "Costa, Mary" The International Who's Who of Women, Routledge, 2001, p. 116. ISBN 1857431227
*The Walt Disney Company, Disney Legends: Mary Costa (accessed 26 January 2010)
==External links==
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pl:Mary Costa
ru:Мэри Коста
ja:メアリー・コスタ
Category:American people
Category:1930s births
Category:Females
Category:Singers
Category:Voice actresses
Category:Radio actors
Category:Actresses
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:Disney Legends
Category:People from Tennessee
Category:National Medal of Arts Winners