Megan Marino

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Megan Marino has been praised by Opera News as “a gifted actress with a strong, appealing voice, graced by a rich lower register,” who appears both “authoritative and carefree.” An instinctive musician and compelling storyteller, Marino moves fluidly among opera, musical theatre, contemporary work, and American vernacular styles. Her ability to disappear into a character grounds emotionally incisive performances across genres and eras, while her collaborative approach has made her a favorite colleague of creatives and performers alike across the industry.

The 2026-2027 season showcases the breadth of Marino’s musical life. She creates the role of Heidi “Rawhide” in the world premiere of A River Runs Through It by Zach Redler, Matt Foss, and Kelley Rourke with Opera Montana, a crossover role drawing on country and western, musical theatre, and operatic vocal styles. Opera Today called her “an unbounded delight,” praising Marino for “merging her polished, dusky instrument with a folk-style delivery that was a model of C/W styling.” She makes role and company debuts as Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti with the Austin Symphony and as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof with Detroit Opera, returns to Houston Grand Opera as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, and makes her Garsington Opera debut as Meg Page in Falstaff.

Recent engagements include Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music at Houston Grand Opera, Maddalena in Rigoletto with OperaDelaware, Maffio Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia with Opera Baltimore, the world premiere of Tom Cipullo and Howard Reich’s new opera The Dialogue of Memories commissioned by Music of Remembrance; her Canadian Opera Company debut as Olga in Eugene Onegin in Robert Carsen’s iconic production; and Flora in La traviata with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. Marino made her role debut as the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd with Utah Opera and Opera Maine, debuted with Pensacola Opera as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, and premiered new works Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately (recorded for later release) and Love Songs for Married People by Evan Mack at Skidmore College. In 2024, she created three of the four roles in the world premiere of Before It All Goes Dark by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer for which Opera Magazine noted the work’s “great emotional responsibility,” praising Marino’s “admirable work finding distinct timbres for each role” in “an eloquently poignant performance.”

A regular performer with The Metropolitan Opera since her 2013 debut as the Voice of an Unborn Child in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Meg has sung Flora in La traviata, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Second Wood Sprite in Rusalka (Met Live in HD), Laura in Iolanta, Myrtale in Thaïs, and Feodor in Boris Godunov. She is also a frequent performer at The Atlanta Opera, where she has appeared as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sesto Pompeo in Giulio Cesare, Olga in Eugene Onegin, a gender-bent Beppe in Pagliacci, and the title role in the world premiere of The Threepenny Carmen; and at Santa Fe Opera, where her roles include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Meg Page in Falstaff, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and Annina in Der Rosenkavalier. Of the latter, Opera Today called her “an animated, laser-voiced delight,” noting that “Marino may cut a petite figure, but don’t underestimate her firepower.”

Across her career, Marino’s signature repertoire has included Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Colorado, Florida Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Kentucky Opera, Virginia Opera), Angelina in La Cenerentola (Palm Beach Opera, Sarasota Opera, OperaDelaware, Opera Baltimore), Meg Page in Falstaff (Dallas Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera), Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Iowa), and Annina in Der Rosenkavalier (Lyric Opera of Chicago). Her versatility and wide-ranging creative interests have increasingly drawn her toward work that crosses stylistic boundaries and capitalizes on her theatrical training, musical curiosity, and earnest communicative gifts. Roles on her bucket list include: Fosca in Passion, Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, the title role in Mignon, Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Madeline Mitchell in Three Decembers, Juno in Semele, and the many roles yet to be created in collaboration with her favorite genre-gliding, multimedia-merging co-creators.

Marino can be heard on several commercial recordings, including Weill’s Road of Promise with MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall and Higdon’s Cold Mountain with Santa Fe Opera. With her longtime recital partner, pianist John Arida, she recorded It’s You I Like, an album of classically anchored music for children, and The Travelled Road: The Music of Evan Mack. In addition to appearing with major orchestras and Arts institutions across the US and abroad as soloist in a multitude of standard masterworks, Meg also regularly collaborates with harpist/arts leader Grace Browning of Chamber Music at San Miguel, and at home with the Creede Repertory Theatre, where her appearances onstage include A Celebration of Rodgers & Hammerstein and On the Stage of Sondheim.

Marino received her professional operatic training as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist and an Aspen Music Festival Opera Fellow. She holds an MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BM in Vocal Performance, with minors in piano and jazz, from the University of Southern Maine. Awards from the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, Marcello Giordani Foundation, Oratorio Society of New York, George London Foundation, Opera Index, and Gerda Lissner Foundation helped bridge the gap between her training and professional operatic career. Today, Meg pays that support forward as a frequent member and guest teaching artist of the Taos Opera Institute vocal faculty. A believer in the collective good, she served on the board of AGMA from 2019–2022, participating in several committees as well as collective bargaining and effects bargaining negotiations during and beyond her time on the board.

Marino’s musical life extends well beyond the operatic stage; she is also a teaching artist, keyboardist, collaborative musician, occasional stage director, and community arts leader. She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Creede Musical Arts Collective, a nonprofit bringing artists and audiences together across genres through performance, education, and community music-making in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. At CMAC, she can be found leading voice classes, subbing as community choir director, writing grants, producing events, and most importantly, playing and teaching music. She is also a member of Midnight Cricket Club, a bluegrass-fusion quartet formed in the summer of 2020 with her husband, baritone Michael Mayes, and prominent Colorado bluegrass musicians KC Groves (Uncle Earl) and Jason Hicks (Blue Canyon Boys). A dual American and Italian citizen, Marino balances long stretches on the road with time at home in Creede, Colorado, where she and Mayes enjoy outdoorsy adventures with their dogs, Peak and Bjørn.

Updated October 3, 2026