Kismet because on a lark with a group of friends when she was in her early 20s, she applied for and received a Fulbright scholarship to study music at the Giuseppe Verdi Music Conservatory in Milan in 1951—and she was the only one out of the group to receive the award. Kismet because while at the conservatory, she was the lone performer who caught the eye of New York's Metropolitan Opera impresario, which eventually led to a 20-year stint with the famed New York opera company.

But Dalis, 78, isn't one to go on about the leading roles she's had with the Metropolitan and San Francisco operas or on the renowned European stages of Berlin and Rome opera houses and Covent Garden in London.

In fact, as a young voice student in Milan, she says, she would have been content to study music without ever stepping onstage to perform or sing in some of the most famous opera houses in the world. Even today she says her life seems almost dreamlike.

"When I look back over my career, it feels like I am talking about someone else," she says. "I don't think when I was young that I ever thought I would make it."

Dalis says that while performing at the Metropolitan Opera—from 1956 through 1976—her experience included performances with renowned tenor Placido Domingo when she played the role of Princesse de Bouillon from Adriana Lecouvreur. She was also the first mezzo-soprano in the opera's history to perform Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Dalis says she was "surrounded by giants who made her do things she didn't think she could do."

Her years as a performer turned out to be just a warm-up for her real love as founder and general director of Opera San José.

In 1976, she left two decades of the Metropolitan Opera spotlight behind and decided it was time to come home to San Jose. She missed her family, including her four siblings and parents, and says her favorite moment as a performer was when she looked out into the audience during her debut at the Metropolitan Opera and saw her mother, sister and brother-in-law in the audience.

"Our family is just like the family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Dalis says, laughing about her own Greek family. "My sister had to talk my dad into letting me move to New York for my master's degree."

Once back in San Jose, she began work as an opera professor at San José State University in 1977. Since joining the university, she's been the director of its opera theater/opera workshop. In fact, Opera San José grew out of these workshops; by 1984 Opera San José became a full-fledged, professional company. The nonprofit employs 10 full-time resident artists.

"I didn't miss performing at all," Dalis says of her transition from performer to director. "It was just a steppingstone to this, because I love doing this. Now I have a whole company. I feel like it was intended that I found an opera company in my own hometown."

And she isn't the only one who is elated to have an opera company close to home.

Opera San José principal resident Sandra Rubalcava met Dalis at San José State University nine years ago and says the opportunities Dalis provides for performers at Opera San José are unlike those at any other opera in the nation, because she gives them a home and a place to learn.

"This was the opportunity of a lifetime for me," the 31-year-old says. "She gives you a place to live, four roles a year and a salary. This is the only company that will hire its artists for a year at a time."

So, when Rubalcava had the opportunity to join Opera San José after receiving her master of music in voice from the Manhattan School of Music, she jumped at the chance to become a resident performer with the opera.

Rubalcava adds, "Irene's watched me grow up. She is my teacher and like a grandma. She is just a dedicated, wonderful woman."

Another San José State University graduate, Edwin Stafford, was deeply affected by Dalis' teachings. Dalis directed Stafford in operas at the university while he was an undergraduate in the mid-1980s. Although Stafford's profession as associate professor of marketing at Utah State University doesn't involve singing, he says his opera experience has actually made him a better educator.

"One of the reasons I'm good in the classroom is due to my years of opera experience," he says. "I was a 19-year-old in the presence of someone who had really made it. I learned to become a good public speaker. She was one of those teachers who helped mold me."

In the early 1990s, Stafford read that Dalis' Willow Glen home on Mulberry Lane had burnt down. The house has since been rebuilt, although Dalis no longer lives in or owns the home. And like all the other unplanned events in her life, she took this one in stride.

But Stafford was dismayed to read that the fire had destroyed all her personal performance archives and decided to start an archive to share with Dalis, saying, "it was the least that I could do."

Through different means, but mostly via Internet research, he has collected nearly 60 recordings—with some "bootlegged" by fellow opera goers who recorded the Dalis performances from equipment placed under their chairs. His favorite archived recordings include her 1961 role as Princess Eboli in Don Carlos, "because the audience just went crazy for her," and her role in Aida in 1962 with famed performer Franco Corelli.

"It's exciting to find rare recordings," Stafford says. "I've found big fans of hers all over the world while looking for archives."

He says one Dalis fan found, in a flea market in Germany, a rare recording of her performing in Carmen. And through Stafford's research, he also discovered a man in Sarasota, Fla., who owns a large collection of Dalis' work.

Stafford, 39, has shared many of his old recordings with San José State University and hopes that one day a student will use them to write a thesis on Dalis.

"I'm just very excited to be able to do this," Stafford says.

Dalis is flattered by all of Stafford's archival work and looks forward to one day looking over his collection of her performances.

But for now, she is busy preparing for the opera's move into its new home, the California Theatre on S. First Street, formerly known as The Fox.

For seven years, she has been involved in all aspects of the theater's renovation and design. And this year's 2004­05 schedule is shaping up to be a strong opera season, with 88 percent of current subscribers renewing their seats. The first show of the upcoming season in the opera company's new home is scheduled for Sept. 18.

The move is a big step for the local opera. The new stage at the California Theatre is more than three times the size of its old stage in the Montgomery Theater. And, the budget is growing too. Opera San José's budget will increase from $2.7 million to $3.5 million. Moving to the California Theatre will also mean twice as many seats to fill, which may prove to be difficult during a time of a less-than-stellar economy.

Opera San José director of marketing/development Larry Hancock says if anyone can make the move successful, it is Dalis. He says her whole life is about Opera San José.

"She is an actual authority in the field of opera," he says. "She has a high standard of artistic and business practice. She has put together an ideal little opera company."

Dalis' smile widens while talking about her 20 years with Opera San José, and even though she is in her late 70s, she drops no hints of retiring. She wants to see the opera and its new theater succeed from the driver's seat, not from the sidelines. And she is unabashed when it comes to crediting her success.

"I've had a lot of luck in my life," she says. "It has just been amazing."