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Mary Costa (born April 5, 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American singer, best known for playing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty.

Costa showed her musical ability at an early age, singing Sunday School solos at the age of six. At 14, she moved to Hollywood with her parents and soon won a Music Sorority Award as the outstanding voice among Southern California High School seniors. In her early teens, Mary’s family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she completed high school and entered the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to study with the famed maestro, Gaston Usigli. Between 1948 and 1951, she appeared with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Bergen radio show. She also sang with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in concerts at UCLA, and made numerous commercials for Lux Radio Theatre.

In 1952, after attending a party with her future husband, director Frank Tashlin, she found herself auditioning for the part of Disney`s Princess Aurora. Walt Disney called her personally within hours of the audition to inform her that the part was hers. In 1958, Mary was called upon to substitute for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at a gala concert in the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Carmen Dragon. Because of her glowing reviews from that performance, she was invited to sing the lead in her first fully staged operatic production, “The Bartered Bride,” produced by the renowned German producer, Carl Ebert, for the Los Angeles Guild Opera. Ebert later requested that Mary appear at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she made a stunning debut. Following these triumphs, Leonard Bernstein deemed her, “perfect,” as the leading lady for his “Candide,” which had both a United States tour and a London season. Ms. Costa received great acclaim from critics and public alike, both in the United States and Europe.

Costa went on to become "one of the most beautiful women to grace the operatic stage," according to The New York Times. She performed in 44 operatic roles on stages throughout the world, including Jules Massenet`s Manon at the Metropolitan Opera, and Violetta in La traviata at the Royal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Cunegonde in the 1959 London premiere of Leonard Bernstein`s Candide. In 1961, for RCA, she recorded Musetta in La bohème, opposite Anna Moffo and Richard Tucker, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. Among numerous roles sung for San Francisco Opera, she was Tytania in the American premiere of Britten`s A Midsummer Nights Dream (1961), Ninette in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio`s Blood Moon (1961) and Anne Truelove in the San Francisco premiere of Stravinsky`s The Rake`s Progress. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Violetta in “La Traviata" on January 6, 1964 receiving one of the season’s greatest ovations and enthusiastic praise from critics.

Ms. Costa impressed television audiences throughout her career with guest appearances on many shows, such as Bing Crosby’s Christmas Show on NBC-TV. She also appeared on Frank Sinatra’s “Woman of the Year” Timex Special for NBC, where she was honored, along with Juliet Prowse, Lena Horne, and Eleanor Roosevelt, as women of the year. In 1972, Sammy Davis Jr. asked Mary to appear on his first NBC Follies. Among his other guests that evening, were Mickey Rooney and Ernest Borgnine. Mary performed a blues selection with Sammy, backed up by one of her favorite performers, Charlie Parker. Her other television credits i

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