MARY ANN STEWART – soprano
Mary Ann Stewart sang “Mrs. Julian with a clarion dramatic soprano, capable of both fragility and ice-cold cruelty” according to Steven Jude Tietjen of Opera News, was “a firm and moving Madame Lidoine”according to Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times and is “...a major operatic talent...” according to Joseph McLellan of The Washington Post.
Notable engagements include the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods and a cover of Herodias in Salome with Tulsa Opera, the title role of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin with Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, Mrs. Julian in Owen Wingrave with LOTNY, Adriano in Rienzi with the National Philharmonic, the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, Adalgisa in Norma with Bilbao Opera, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw at the Festival de Opera de Tenerife, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with Virginia Opera, Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena with Opera Orchestra of New York, Agathe in Der Freischütz with Utopia Opera, the Sixth Flowermaiden in Parsifal, Siegrune in Die Walküre and Idamante in Idomeneo with Washington National Opera, Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette with the Macau Opera Festival, The Secretary in The Consul with Opera Boston, Isolier in Le Comte Ory with Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Urbain in Les Huguenots with Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Old Lady in Candide at the Teatro Argentina in Rome with Euro Festivale Mediterraneo, the title role in Carmen with Opera in the Heights, Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opéra de Nice and Rose 3 in Jonathan Sheffer’s Off Broadway premiere of Blood on the Dining Room Floor with the WPA Theater. One of her greatest thrills was singing the Opera Angel in Gift of Angels II – The Song of an Angel at Universal Studios Japan for three consecutive seasons. She returned to USJ in 2019-20 to sing the Queen of the Faeries in The Crystal Promise.
Highlights of Mary Ann’s concert engagements include Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder, Fauré Requiem, Mozart Requiem, and Beethoven’s Mass in C at Carnegie Hall, Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor at Lincoln Center, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Lehigh University, Ravel’s Schéhérazade at the Ravello Festival, Italy and Manuel de Falla’s Siete Canciones with Morales Dance Company.
She has had the pleasure to work with conductors Yves Abel, Josep Caballé- Domenech, Richard Cordova, Jacques Delacôte, John DeMain, Plácido Domingo, Arthur Fagen, Christopher Fecteau, Heinz Fricke, Piotr Gajewski, Steven Jarvi, Peter Mark, John Massaro, Andreas Mitisek, Steven Osgood, Victor Pablo Pérez, Eve Queler, Gil Rose, Catherine Venable, Alberto Zedda and David Zinman, as well as directors Arnaud Bernard, Ken Cazan, Tara Faircloth, PaulÉmile Fourny, Francesca Gilpin, Lillian Groag, Leon Major, John Pascoe, Philip Schneidman, Francesco Torrigiani, Mariusz Treliński and Francesca Zambello.
Mary Ann is a grant recipient of The Olga Forrai Foundation.