Marie McLaughlin

Scottish soprano Marie McLaughlin made her Royal Opera debut aged 24 as Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) and has since returned regularly to the Company, singing roles including Susanna and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La bohème), Katerina (The Greek Passion), Mrs Meg Page (Falstaff) and La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi). In the 2017/18 Season she sang Meg Page. Her musical theatre credits include The Light in the Piazza (Royal Festival Hall).

McLaughlin was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, and studied in Glasgow and at the London Opera Centre. Her talent was noted by Peter Pears, who invited her to perform in masterclasses at Aldeburgh for three successive years. She has performed for companies including Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and Grand Théâtre, Geneva, in roles including Susanna, Zerlina, Ilia (Idomeneo), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Despina and Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Gilda (Rigoletto), Micaëla (Carmen), Violetta (La traviata), Marzelline (Fidelio), Musetta and Hanna Glawari (Die lustige Witwe). Key roles in her current repertory include Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicci), Madam Larina (Eugene Onegin), Despina, Alisa (Lucia de Lammermoor) and Mrs Grose and Miss Jessel (Turn of the Screw). Equally at ease in contemporary repertory,her role creations include Lillian Disney (Glass’s The Perfect American) for Teatro Real, Madrid, Mother Needham (Bell’s The Harlot’s Progress) for Theater an der Wien and Abigail Simpson (Julian Grant’s The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare) for Boston Lyric Opera.

McLaughlin has sung in concert with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Haitink and Giuseppe Sinopoli. Her many recordings include Lieder by Schubert and Strauss.