Biography

This season Mary Elizabeth Williams debuted at Santa Fe Opera as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka and joined the cast of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Metropolitan Opera. Other recent engagements include Isolde in Tristan und Isolde at Seattle Opera and in Peter Sellars’s production at Paris Opera, as well as the title role of Aïda at Cincinnati Opera and Bielefeld Opera in Germany. She made a house debut at Theater an der Wien as Serena in Porgy and Bess, a role she has also sung at La Scala and Seattle Opera and recorded with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg. Other recent role debuts include Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, which she sang at Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi and Teatro Coccia in Novara, Italy. She has also appeared with Opéra Dijon, Opéra de Lille, Welsh National Opera, and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, as well as with the Atlanta Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and France’s Festival St. Denis. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Originally from Philadelphia, Ms. Williams graduated from Luther College in Iowa, after which she joined Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program. She made her Seattle mainstage debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and in 2012 won the Artist of the Year title, determined by the Seattle audience. She was a member of Centre de Formation Lyrique at the Paris Opera, where she won the Lyric Artist prize and was also awarded first prize in the Concours Clermont-Ferrand. She now lives in Milan with her husband, tenor Lorenzo Decaro.