Mary Elizabeth Williams
Mary Elizabeth Williams’ last season engagements include the title role Aida at Cincinnati Opera and Judith Bluebeard’s Castle at both Teatro Coccia, Novara and Teatro Pergolesi, Jesi. Future engagements include her debut as Isolde Tristan und Isolde at Seattle Opera prior to her engagement for the role at Opera National de Paris. In Germany she returns to the title role Aida, and she travels back to the US for Foreign Princess Rusalka at Santa Fe Opera.
Recent highlights include Elisabeth Don Carlos in the five-act French version at Vlaanderen Opera, Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Zubin Mehta and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. She returned to her native USA to Lyric Opera of Chicago to prepare Gutrune Götterdämmerung in the new Ring production by David Pountney, and made her house debut at Theatre an der Wien as Serena Porgy and Bess, a role she previously sang at La Scala Milan and at Seattle Opera in past seasons.
“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 |
Contact
Deborah Sanders
Founder and Director
deborah@arbourartists.com