For The Love Of Opera

It was February 4, 2013, the day before the couple’s two-year anniversary.

Dimitrie Lazich picked up his girlfriend, Maria D’Amato, from Lincoln Center in Manhattan—home of the Metropolitan Opera and the soprano’s latest career move as a member of its chorus. As they exited through the main entrance, she couldn’t tear her eyes from the tourist shop bag her boyfriend was clutching at his side.

“Why did he go shopping at the Met Opera store?” she recalled asking herself last week during a telephone interview. “I get a discount at the Met Opera store. Like, why did he buy me something?”

Despite herself, she became more and more agitated, she said, even as he sat her down at the plaza fountain. Her frustration grew as he handed her the jewelry box inside the bag. And still it grew, even as she opened it.

He dropped to one knee, against a backdrop of three dozen “ooo”-ing 16-year-old girls dressed in their finest to see the opera—which, according to Ms. D’Amato, was the biggest love of her life, and her beau’s, until they found each other.

Though he later grew to appreciate and love opera, the baritone said he was bored out of his mind the first time he saw one—“Così Fan Tutte”—during his youth in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he recalled last week during a telephone interview, noting the Italian language opera buffa is now his favorite.

But Ms. D’Amato was hooked from the very beginning. She couldn’t tear herself from the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on PBS that she watched growing up in Shirley on Long Island.

“I would go into my second grade teacher and tell her the synopses of the operas on TV and she was like, ‘Seriously?’” Ms. D’Amato laughed. “Literally, in second grade. I was clearly very interested. Nobody forced me to be an opera singer. I just loved all of it.”

As a young girl, Ms. D’Amato was nothing short of a ham. But during her teenage years, while navigating the dreaded awkward stage, she clammed up. Her family still jokes that she was “singing in the closet,” she said.

Singing became a private practice, until she found herself regularly performing in front of the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church congregation in East Hampton, where she has family. This past July, her 15-year singing stint ended when she accepted a job with the Metropolitan Opera, leaving her church family and local community behind. But not forever, she said.

Come Saturday, April 13, Ms. D’Amato will return to the church to sing, along with her singing partner and love, Mr. Lazich.

“As much as we miss hearing her soaring voice every Sunday, we’re proud to see her on the live Met broadcasts,” the church’s music series organizer Lysbeth Marigold wrote last week in an email, “and can’t wait to enjoy her expanded talents—with her soul mate, Dimitrie—back in East Hampton.”

During their performance, the duo will debut a full recital—the “start of our little sideshow,” Ms. D’Amato said—at St. Luke’s. The program kicks off with a handful of sacreds, such as “Simple Songs” and “Shall We Gather at the River” from composers Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, respectively, as well as “O, Divine Redeemer” by Charles Gonoud, which was the first duet the couple sang together inside the church, Mr. Lazich said.

The opening section will wrap with a set of Italian songs, followed by a second half devoted to their most cherished songs—including a block dedicated to East Hampton-based lyricist Sheldon Harnick, most notably known for his work on “Fiddler on the Roof,” Mr. Lazich’s favorite musical—and love duets from classic musical theater.

“It’s one of those things. We stand back, look at each other and say, ‘I love singing with you,’” Ms. D’Amato said. “It’s a totally different dynamic than singing with a stranger. It helps to have good chemistry, which sounds like common sense, but a lot of times, we have both been in situations where you’re with somebody and you can’t really force that. It’s either there or it’s not.”

She felt it the first moment she saw him, she said. It was 2010, and she was performing as Mimi in the Sarasota Opera’s production of “La Bohéme,” her favorite opera. Mr. Lazich, who was portraying Thomas Putnam in the company’s companion production, “The Crucible,” sat in during the first reading of “La Bohéme” to cover Marcello.

“I definitely noticed him,” Ms. D’Amato said, “but I didn’t think he was interested.”

He was, Mr. Lazich said. And this February, after 729 days of dating, he was on one knee, a discarded Metropolitan Opera bag at his side, asking for her hand in marriage in front of more than 30 gawking witnesses.

“She said yes,” he said, and laughed, “otherwise, I don’t know whether this recital would be taking place.”

Once they set a date, the couple will begin scouting out wedding locations. And, naturally, St. Luke’s is at the top of their list.

“Music at St. Luke’s” will close with a concert by soprano Maria D’Amato and baritone Dimitrie Lazich on Saturday, April 13, at 4 p.m. at Hoie Hall in East Hampton. Tickets are $20, or free for students age 18 and under. For tickets or more information, call 329-0990 or visit stlukeseasthampton.org.