Marie McLaughlin

“As always this soprano made the stage her own, radiating personality and pathos”
(Opera Magazine)

Distinguished soprano Marie McLaughlin has enjoyed more than four decades of performance at the highest international level. Over that time, she has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest conductors including Daniel Barenboim and Sir Antonio Pappano as well as such legends as the late Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Haitink and Giuseppe Sinopoli. A wide repertoire of core roles took McLaughlin around the world at an early age including to the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris and Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals. Her substantial discography includes many of those roles including Zerlina with Sir Neville Marriner for Philips, Despina with James Levine for Deutsche Grammophon as well as Micaëla and Violetta under Bernard Haitink.

Key roles in today’s repertory include Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) which has been heard at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra National de Paris, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Salzburg and Ravinia festivals, LA Opera and at the Metropolitan Opera, La Ciesca (Gianni Schicci) at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival, Madame Larina (Eugene Onegin) at Teatro Regio di Torino, Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra de Lille, Despina (Cosi fan tutte) at Scottish Opera and Spoleto Festival, Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw) at Teatro Real Madrid and Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden, and Miss Jessel in the late Luc Bondy’s acclaimed production at Aix-en-Provence Festival and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, conducted by Daniel Harding and released on DVD by BelAir Classique. Recent highlights have included Meg Page in Robert Carsen’s production of Falstaff for Royal Opera House under Nicola Luisotti, Older Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Scottish Opera, Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress with London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski and Marcellina both at Salzburg’s Mozartwoche under Sir András Schiff and in James Gray’s new production at Los Angeles Opera under James Conlon. This season McLaughlin returns to Royal Opera House as the Mayor’s Wife in Claus Guth’s Olivier award-winning production of Jenůfa under Jakub Hruša.

Equally at ease in contemporary repertoire, Marie McLaughlin has recently created the characters of Lilian Disney in Philip Glass’ The Perfect American at Teatro Real Madrid, Mother Needham in Iain Bell’s The Harlot’s Progress at Theater an der Wien, Abigail Simpson in the world premiere of Julian Grant’s The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare for Boston Lyric Opera, and latterly Annie Chapman in Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel for English National Opera. Most recently McLaughlin portrayed the character of Signora Naccarelli in Daniel Evans’ hit production The Light in the Piazza which toured to LA Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago following its critically-acclaimed debut run at London’s Southbank Centre.

Gallery

“Outstanding for the singing and acting development [were] the legendary mezzo-soprano Marie McLaughlin.”

(Gli amicia della musica, Ramon Jacques, May 2023)

“Formidable soprano.”

(SFCV, Victoria Looseleaf, May 2023)

“Marie McLaughlin as Signora Naccarelli, who steps into Guettel’s delirious four-part vocal arrangement, “Aiutame” with a stunning aria of her own.”

(Hollywood Reporter, October 2019)

“Marie McLaughlin – another opera veteran – is classy as Signora Naccarelli”

(The Guardian, June 2019)

“McLaughlin endowed her role with beauty and intensity”

(Opera Magazine, June 2019)

“She sounds in perfect voice, as do Kelly and the ever-sympathetic Marie McLaughlin as victims one and two.”

(Arts Desk, April 2019)

“Marie McLaughlin’s Mother Goose — if vocally having little to do — proved something of a scene stealer. The brothel scene was a tour de force of dramatic intervention, as Mother Goose evocatively flirted with the orchestra and the choir (the superb London Voices), as well as Jurowski, and the whole scene was brimming with humour.”

(Opera Today, November 2018)

“Marie McLaughlin as Mother Goose gave an object lesson in scene-stealing in the brothel episode. In character she greeted her clientele and dominated the stage long before she had sung a note.”

(Classical Source, November 2018)

“Pure class reigned throughout, completed by deft cameos from veterans Marie McLaughlin and Kim Begley, to crown respectively brothel and auction.”

(The Arts Desk, November 2018)

“Marie McLaughlin [was a] glamorous, very noticeable Meg – luxury casting, this.”

(Opera Magazine, September 2018)

Apart from Laing, France and Simmonds, this is a new, and ideal, cast, but Marie McLaughlin’s glamorous Older Woman almost steals the show with the dry delivery of her lines and her still voluptuous-sounding voice. When the Refugee, offering her one of his “magic” stones, asks if she believes, she replies: “I need a miracle. I’m 52.” It’s both funny and touching. McLaughlin makes a mini Marschallin of her character, someone with whom we can all identify.

(Sunday Times, March 2018)

“As for Marie McLaughlin, it is hard to imagine a more glamorous Older Woman. As always this soprano made the stage her own, radiating personality and pathos while singing with the sort of dark, voluptuous tones that most ‘older women’ would kill for. We want her back!”

(Opera magazine, April 2018)

“Marie McLaughlin is in fine voice as Walt’s wife Lillian, a part she sings with depth and conviction.”

(Opera Magazine, December 2016)

“Marie McLaughlin’s eyes sparkle as much as her dangly ear-rings and, in her (Marcellina’s) vocal duel with Susanna, she is sharp as a pin.”

(The Opera Critic, August 2015)

“Marie McLaughlin was a priceless Despina”

(Il Giornale della Musica, July 2015)