Grammy-award winner Ana María Martínez was born in Puerto Rico, daughter of the opera singer Evangelína Colón, from whom she had her earliest lessons. The soprano studied at The Juilliard School in New York, graduating in 1993. Her breakthrough came two years later as a prizewinner at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition, and in 1996 she joined the Spanish tenor for concert appearances in Madrid, Palm Beach, and Buenos Aires. Her critically acclaimed debut with the Washington Opera came in 1997 as Soleá in Penella’s El Gato Montés. It was followed by a series of triumphant debuts at leading European houses—the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, as Verdi’s Luisa Miller; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; and as Debussy’s Mélisande under Sinopoli at the Teatro Comunale, Florence. Martínez has appeared at the Vienna State Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and in a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and she has sung the role of Liù in Turandot at the Washington Opera, Mimì in La Bohème at the Deutsche Oper, and Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore at the Houston Grand Opera. She was featured in the world premiere tour and recording of Philip Glass’s opera La Belle et la Bête, and she created the role of the Mother in the world premiere of Menotti’s The Singing Child at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Her orchestral engagements have included concerts with Andrea Bocelli in the United States and with Domingo in the United States, Canada, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Lebanon. On recordings, she can also be heard in Bacalov’s Misa Tango under Myung Whun-Chung; Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5 under Dennis Russell Davies; the Houston Grand Opera production of Bright Sheng’s The Song of Majnun; and opposite Domingo in Albéniz’s opera Merlin. In addition to an active international performance career, Ms. Martínez will be heard on the upcoming season of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle.
(Updated: 3/14/2019)
