Catherine Martin

American mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin continues to make an impact in repertoire ranging from Verdi and Wagner to Strauss and Bellini. In 2022-23, Martin made her role debut as Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with Dayton Opera, bowed as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with Opera Colorado, returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Eboli (cover) in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Maryland Lyric Opera as Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff, and Des Moines Metro Opera as Clarice in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges. In the 2023-24 season, she returns to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Preziosilla in Verdi’s La forza del destino and makes her Atlanta Opera debut as Waltraute in Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Highlights from recent seasons include covering Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with Metropolitan Opera; Eboli in Don Carlos with Maryland Lyric Opera; Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Kentucky Opera; Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Waltraute in Twilight: Gods, a collaboration between Michigan Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of Chicago; performances in various roles from Wagner’s Ring Cycle with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, the Dallas Symphony, and National Taichung Theatre in Taiwan; Amneris in Verdi’s Aïda with Houston Grand Opera, Opera Carolina, Opera Colorado, and Opera Santa Barbara; Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma with Florida Grand Opera; Der Komponist in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Glimmerglass Festival; Hécube and covering Didon in Berlioz’s Les Troyens with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto with New Orleans Opera and Opera Santa Barbara; Herodias in Strauss’s Salome with Dayton Opera; Meg in Falstaff with Intermountain Opera; Leonora in Donizetti’s La favorita with New Amsterdam Opera; Wowkle in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West with Maryland Lyric Opera; Annina and the cover of Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with the National Symphony Orchestra; Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra; and Handel’s Messiah with the Handel Oratorio Society.

Martin is also an avid interpreter of contemporary opera. She has appeared as Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking with Minnesota Opera and Dayton Opera as well as covering Sister Helen at Washington National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago; the Minkswoman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight with Dallas Opera; Mary in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me with Washington National Opera; Genevieve in Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with American Symphony Orchestra; Tamara in Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story with Kentucky Opera; Eva Crowley in Jack Perla’s An American Dream with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Sara Miller in D. J. Sparr’s Approaching Ali with Washington National Opera; and the world premiere of Angela Rice’s Thy Will Be Done with the National Chorale at Lincoln Center.