Deborah Sanders

Arts Management

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Soprano

Based in Milan, Italy, US-born soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams’ current season includes her Santa Fe Opera debut as Foreign Princess Rusalka and takes her to the Metropolitan Opera to join the cast of Un Ballo in MascheraRecent engagements include her great success as Isolde Tristan und Isolde at Seattle Opera followed by her appearance in the role at Paris Opera, France. She sang the title role Aida at Cincinnati Opera and travelled to Theater Bielefeld to repeat the role. She made a house debut at Theatre an der Wien as Serena Porgy and Bess, a role she sang at La Scala Milan and at Seattle Opera in past seasons and which she recently recorded with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg.  Other recent role debuts include Judith Bluebeard’s Castle at Teatro Pergolesi Jesi and Teatro Coccia Novara in Italy.

 

Past career highlights include her role debut at Vlaanderen Opera as Elisabeth Don Carlos, her debut with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in seven performances of Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at Festival St Denis in France. In her native USA at Lyric Opera of Chicago she prepared for another house and role debut as Gutrune Götterdämmerung in the new Ring production by David Pountney.

“Pennsylvania soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams provided another thrilling female performance as The Foreign Princess. Possessing a dramatic soprano voice of power, Williams portrayed an imperiously aggressive rival to the mute Rusalka. Williams brought star power to this important comprimario role.”

William Burnett, OperaWarhorses.com, July 28, 2023

 

“From her first scene to the final “Liebestod” (“love-death”), Mary Elizabeth Williams sang her first Isolde with an authority and brilliance that illuminated one of the most challenging roles in the operatic repertoire. Her voice has the unflagging power and heft for the role, but she also has the subtlety to “dial down” that intensity to convey tenderness and uncertainty. Williams is a compelling actor, whether she is raging against an arranged marriage or ecstatic with love for Tristan.” Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times, October 17, 2022

 

“American soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams easily filled the house with her higher resister. The two female soloists with glorious woodwind accompaniment gave a sublime account of the “Recordare,” one of the quieter more subdued passages of the requiem.”

The Jerusalem Post, Irving Spitz, 14 July 2019

“Outstanding is Mary Elizabeth Williams’s Amelia, a morose, somewhat one-dimensional role with, though, rivetting, difficult, beautiful music over a big range, much exposed in the gallows scene here by placing her a good deal downstage with her back to the horrors. She never puts a foot wrong; this is wonderful Verdi singing.”

Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk, 11 February 2019

Bartok

Bellini

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Judith)

Norma (title, Adalgisa)

Catalani La Wally (Wally)
Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur (title)
Danielpour Margaret Garner (Cilla)
Davis Amistad (The Goddess of the Waters)
Donizetti Maria Stuarda (Elisabetta)
Gershwin Porgy and Bess (Serena, Bess*)
Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza)
Massenet Le Cid (Chimène)
Puccini Le Villi (Anna)

Tosca (title)

Suor Angelica (title)

J. Stauss Die Fledermaus (Rosalinde)
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (Marianne)
Verdi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wagner

Aida (title)
Attilla (Odabella)
Un Ballo In Maschera (Amelia)
La Forza del Destino (Lenora)
Macbeth (Lady Macbeth)
Otello (Desdemona)
Nabucco (Abigaille)
Il trovatore (Leonora)Don Carlos (Elisabeth)Tristan und Isolde (Isolde)Götterdämmerung (Gutrune)

 

Beethoven Symphony No.9
Berlioz Les nuits d’été
Fauré Requiem
Mahler Rückert-Lieder
Poulenc Gloria
Respighi Il Tramonto
Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony
Verdi Requiem
Wagner Wesendonck Lieder

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