Janai Brugger

Soprano

Janai Brugger’s engagements this season include her debut Donna Elvira Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera followed by her debut as Mimi La Boheme at Los Angeles Opera. Miss Brugger returns to The Met for Michaela Carmen, makes her Seattle Symphony debut with Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, and travels to Minneapolis to appear in a specially curated program of Florence Price songs, Heart of a Woman, a program she also takes to Great Britain to sing with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The artist also sings Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Sacramento Philharmonic and rounds out the season with her return to Grant Park Music Festival.

Recent past appearances include her spectacular success in the role of Pip the cabin boy in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at The Metropolitan Opera for which she won outstanding reviews. She sang the role of Tovah Odesska in Aaron Zigman’s Émigré conducted by Long Yu with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and with Hong Kong Philharmonic. She returned to Ravinia Festival for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Marin Alsop, sang Bruckner’s Psalm 150 and Margaret Bonds’ Credo at Grant Park Music Festival, and participated in The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025 Summer Park Series.

“As Micaëla, Janai Brugger embodied decency and devotion. Her creamy soprano and passionate singing made “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante” the emotional high point of the performance. The tender feelings she expressed were heightened by the fine horn playing in the orchestra.” Rick Perdian, New York Classical Voice, January 12, 2026

“Another outstanding performance was offered by the radiant soprano Janai Brugger, the only woman in the cast, in the trouser role of Pip, the cabin boy … Singing with extraordinary energy, she quickly revealed her character’s good humor and playfulness. ”

Susan Stempleski, Backtrack, 12 March, 2025

“The delightful Janai Brugger shone as Pip, her voice growing richer as the voyage progressed, particularly in her moving lament with Stephen Costello’s Greenhorn as Ryan Speedo Green’s Queequeg died.”

Christopher Corwin, New York Observer, March 13, 2025

“If Polenzani dominated the production, Brugger was not far behind. Her sweet, shiny soubrette and engaging theatricality previously lit up the stage in PBO productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Pasquale. Yet she also brought dramatic weight when required. “Ach, ich fühl’s” was heartbreaking, so emotionally expressive was Brugger’s projection of Pamina’s sadness when she thinks her lover has abandoned her. She stood up to the advances of the evil Monastatos with spunk, her textual clarity matched by adding grit to her attractive sound.”

Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Classical Review, 22 February, 2021