Ana María Martínez

Ana Maria Martinez is a Puerto Rican soprano who arrived on the international scene in leading roles in the last half of the 1990s. She rose to prominence when she won the Plácido Domingo International Voice Competition Operalia 1995. Domingo supported the beginnings of her career by appearing with her in concert in Madrid, Palm Beach, and Buenos Aires. He also sang with her in a production televised on Puerto Rican television of Puccini's La Bohème, Martinez singing Mimì to Domingo's Rodolfo. The same opera was the vehicle for her debuts in Los Angeles and in New York (City Opera) during the 1997-1998 season. During the same season she debuted at Opera Stuttgart and Michigan Opera Theater (Adina in L'elisir d'amore) and the Vienna State Opera (Pamina in The Magic Flute). Other operas she has sung are El Gato Montés by Penella (as Soleá), the title role of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide, Bizet's Carmen (as Micaëla), Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto, and Verdi's Otello (Desdemona). She has appeared at the Washington Opera, the Opéra de Montpellier, Opera Bonn, the Dresden Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera, the Austin Lyric Opera and the Seattle Opera.