ANA MARÍA MARTÍNEZ
Soprano
Grammy Award® winner Ana María Martínez’ dramatic range distinguishes her as one of today’s most sophisticated lyric sopranos with a career that spans the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. With a repertoire that encompasses opera’s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies, she engages her audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, and a myriad of captivating recordings. An Opera News cover story on Ms. Martinez raved that her “soprano harks back to the golden age. Her range is even, from a dusky chest-voice through a claret-colored middle and up to radiant top, and is impressive in its quiet moments as it is at full power.”
Leading roles in Europe include Rusalka with the Glyndebourne Festival, Liu in Turandot with De Nederlandse Opera, the title role in Luisa Miller with Bayerische Staatsoper, and Violetta in La Traviata and Cio-Sio San in Madame Butterfly both with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, as well as numerous engagements with the Hamburg Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Opera National de Paris.
Highlights of her American engagements include The Metropolitan Opera as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly and Micaëla in Carmen, Lyric Opera of Chicago as Nedda in I Pagliacci, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and as the title role in Rusalka, and The Los Angeles Opera as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra opposite Plácido Domingo in the title role, as well as numerous leading roles with Washington National Opera, Opera de Puerto Rico, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Houston Grand Opera where her recent portrayal of Rusalka was “Sung to perfection, top to bottom, Dvorák’s glorious work gives Martínez, the international soprano who’s an audience favorite at HGO, the role of a lifetime. Martinez is as hauntingly radiant as is Dvorák’s music for her. A consummate actor, she beguiles in her mute second act scenes, trembling with fright and anticipation, slowly gaining her balance on shaky new legs. Ah, but she has a voice — what a voice! — and it caresses these Slavic melodies that can break one’s heart. Martinez is at the top of her game, and that’s the best in the world anywhere.” (Houston Press)
Ms. Martinez’s concert career includes performances with the world’s most celebrated orchestras and conductors, including at Teatro alla Scala with the Filharmonica della Scala, the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony, Tchaikovsky Symphony in Moscow, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasiliera in Rio de Janeiro, Boston Symphony, BBC Symphony at Barbican Hall, National Symphony of the Dominican Republic, and at the Casals Festival, Ravinia Festival, Esterhazy Festival in Austria, as well as on tour alongside Placido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli. Her impressive discography includes her solo album Soprano Songs and Arias; Amor, Vida de Mi Vida with Plácido Domingo; American Dream: Andrea Bocelli’s Statue of Liberty Concert and Concerto: One Night in Central Park both alongside Andrea Bocelli; as well as the title role in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut opposite Andrea Bocelli with Maestro Domingo conducting, and Rusalka recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival.