Megan Marino

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Be it on stage, screen, under a big tent, standard fare repertoire, forgotten gem or work in progress, Meg is genre-adventurous and driven by a deep-rooted need to communicate, mixed with pure moxie. She’s a true believer that a good song is a good song, regardless of its genre or origin. Established as a stylish musician, agile fioriturist and a fearless stage animal, she’s been praised by Opera News as “authoritative and carefree,” “a gifted actress with a strong, appealing voice, graced by a rich lower register,” and singing trouser roles with “swagger” and “vocal audacity.” 

This season, Meg returns to OperaDelaware & Opera Baltimore to debut as Maddalena in Rigoletto, The Atlanta Opera to debut “bucket list” role Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, makes her mainstage debut with Houston Grand Opera as Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music, premieres Jake Heggie & Gene Scheer’s Before It All Goes Dark in her debut with Music of Remembrance, and returns to Santa Fe Opera as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier. She's heard in concert with Fort Worth Opera, Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera, Pensacola Opera, and presents curated cabaret performances as a part of the OperaDelaware Studio Series. Additionally, Meg serves as Artist-in-Residence with her alma mater and as Executive Director of Creede Musical Arts Collective (501c3).

In an eclectic 2022-2023, Meg returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Flora in La traviata, and Second Lady (debut) in The Magic Flute (holiday version). She also released a studio recording "It's You I Like," an album of classically anchored music specifically for children (and their adults), with long-time collaborator, pianist John Arida. She also made her directorial debut on Shreveport Opera’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the spring & summer of 2023, Meg returned to University of Southern Maine for an Artist Residency, joined the vocal faculty of the Taos Opera Institute. She continued as Executive Director of the Creede Musical Arts Collective and also served as stage director for their first ever co-production with Creede Repertory Theatre (A Celebration of Rodgers & Hammerstein). She finished the summer debuting with the Grand Teton Festival in a return to the role of Suzuki in a semi-staged concert version of Madama Butterfly and joining KC Groves & Friends on stage at Rockygrass for the Sunday Morning Bluegrass Gospel Set.

Her 2021-2022 engagements included returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Feodor in Boris Godunov, the Atlanta Opera as Sesto Pompeo in Giulio Cesare (now streaming on the company’s Spotlight Media platform) and the Santa Fe Opera as Meg Page in Falstaff. The summer of 2022 marked the inaugural season of the Creede Musical Arts Collective Inc. a 501c3 organization which she co-founded with husband, baritone Michael Mayes. The organization’s mission is to enrich the community of Creede, Colorado and the San Luis Valley through all genres of Musical Arts; instrumental, vocal and physical alike.

In a busy 2020-21 season, she joined the Atlanta Opera Company Players for their Big Tent Series where she made her role debut as Carmen in their re-imagined version of the Bizet classic The Threepenny Carmen. She was also featured in a myriad of concerts (for which she utilized her breadth of repertoire knowledge to also serve as the company’s resident programmer), the Orfano Mondo series, and as a fach-bending-melodion-playing Beppe in Pagliacci; all of which can be viewed on the company’s Spotlight Media platform. Additionally, she debuted with Houston Grand Opera as Elsa Schraeder and co-narrating in My Favorite Things: The Sound of Music in Concert before returning to the Santa Fe Opera for her long-awaited debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. She was also featured accompanying herself at the piano in bel canto projects digitally released by Teatro Nuovo. In the spring of 2021, she released her debut album The Travelled Road, the Music of Evan Mack, with pianist John Arida (PARMA Records). In the beginning of the 2019-20 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Flora in La Traviata and Opera Colorado as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (before the global pandemic effectively altered the rest).

Meg made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2013 as a Voice of an Unborn Child in Die Frau ohne Schatten and has returned every season since. Capitalizing on her petite stature and theatrical chops she has become a house staple singing many “children, magical creatures & quirky sidekicks:” Laura/Iolanta, the Nursing Sister/Suor Angelica, Myrtale/Thais, Second Wood Nymph/Rusalka, as well as serving as understudy in numerous productions along the way. Other notable credits include: Rosina/Il barbiere di Siviglia (Kentucky Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Fort Collins, Virginia Opera & Saint Petersburg Opera, FL), Angelina/La Cenerentola (Palm Beach Opera, OperaDelaware, Opera Fort Collins, Green Mountain Opera, Baltimore Concert Opera), Olga/Eugene Onegin (Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City), Meg Page/Falstaff (Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera & DMMO), The Page/Salome (Santa Fe Opera & Palm Beach Opera), Annina/Der Rosenkavalier (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Suzuki/Madama Butterfly (Santa Fe Opera & Grand Teton Festival), Hänsel/Hänsel und Gretel (LOKC), Varvara/Káťa Kabanová (Spoleto Festival U.S.A.), Despina/Così fan tutte (Central City Opera), Stepháno/Romeo et Juliette, and Jessie/The Long Walk (Utah Opera). She has joined the rosters of Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Caramoor and the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro as understudy for many leading bel canto & Händel roles.

Her concert credits include: Händel’s Messiah (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Boulder Master Chorale), Mozart’s Requiem (Boston Boys Choir), Bach’s St. John Passion (American University of Beirut), Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Caramoor International Music Festival) and Haydn’s Mass No. 6 (Carnegie Hall), Higdon’s Bentley Roses (Santa Fe Concerts) and Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge (Fine Tuned Society of Boulder). She is also a featured soloist on recordings with Master Voices at Carnegie Hall (Weill’s Road of Promise), Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon & Gene Scheer’s Cold Mountain, and is an active recitalist with pianist John Arida. Her “bucket list” repertoire: Mignon/Mignon, Sister Helen Prejean/Dead Man Walking, Jenny/Rise & Fall of the City Mahagonny, Mrs. Lovett/Sweeney Todd, Fosca/Passion, Margaret Johnson/Light in the Piazza, Poème de l'amour et de la mer & The Dream of Gerontius... and a piece or two that has yet to be written.

Marino’s extensive training includes a Master of Music from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern Maine with multi-disciplinary concentrations in classical, jazz, voice & piano, two summers as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist, Aspen Opera Theater Fellowship, as well as many other regional American young artist programs. She was also honored with numerous awards and competition wins (Lotte Lenya/Kurt Weill Foundation, Marcello Giordani Foundation/Vero Beach, Oratorio Society of NY, Denver Lyric Opera Guild, George London Foundation, Opera Index, Gerda Lissner, to name a few) that helped her to bridge the gap between her training and professional career. Growing up in the Philadelphia area, she spent her childhood through early university years studying piano and acting in local and regional theaters.

When not on the opera stage, she can be heard accompanying herself at the piano, singing harmony & playing her Hammond melodion with the Colorado bluegrass-fusion band Midnight Cricket Club, and enjoying life at home with her husband, their dog Peak and extended family in Columbia, SC & Creede, CO (USA). A true believer in the greater collective good, Meg was an active board member of AGMA, serving on multiple committees, CBA and effects bargaining negotiations from 2019-2022. She is a dual American and Italian citizen.

Current as of August 13, 2023