(Chicago, Illinois)
2018–19 Season: Mother Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life
2019–20 Season: Marcellina, The Marriage of Figaro
Mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook has appeared with San Francisco Opera in more than 40 roles since her debut in 1991. Fall of 2018, she sang the role of Mother Bailey in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Her Company credits include originating the roles of Jade Boucher in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Arlene Kamen and Wang Tai-Tai in Stewart Wallace’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter; the title role of Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Countess de Coigny in Andrea Chénier, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Mrs. McLean in Susannah, among many other parts. She has also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Santa Fe Opera.
Recent highlights include Camila in the North American premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel at the Metropolitan Opera and the Innkeeper in a semi-staged version of Boris Godunov with the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. Cook was a participant of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship, and is a winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions. For over a decade, she has been on the voice faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she holds the Frederica von Stade Distinguished Chair in Voice.