Mary Elizabeth Williams is receiving critical acclaim in signature lyrico-spinto soprano roles. Of a spring 2009 performance as Tosca, the Washington Post said, “it [Vissi d'arte] was utterly moving here: full-voiced, nuanced and culminating in a dusky, held high note followed by a long break as the character struggled with her tears before choking out (in fine voice, of course), "Why, Lord, do you repay me like this?" It brought Williams's performance up to a new level, and she sailed through the rest of the evening with authority, establishing herself as someone worth keeping an eye, or ear, on in the future.”

Additional engagements from the 2008-2009 season included her Spoleto Festival U.S.A. debut as Goddess of the Waters in Amistad, her Michigan Opera Theatre debut as Cilla in Margaret Garner, her Indianapolis Opera debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore, and her Arizona Opera debut as Tosca. Future engagements include Leonora in Il Trovatore in her Seattle Opera debut, Tosca in her New Orleans Opera debut, a return to the Atlanta Opera as Aida, and a return to the Michigan Opera Theatre as Tosca. In concert, she will perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Williams made her Kentucky Opera debut in the 2007-2008 season in Il Trovatore. Opera News said, “Verdi sopranos are in no danger of extinction if Mary Elizabeth Williams continues to progress. She is a major discovery, with a voice of luxurious, warm beauty and sensitive musicianship, outlining phrases with delicacy. Her touching interpretation made Leonora into a real human being with a character that seemed to grow out of the music.”

Recent noted engagements include Serena in Porgy and Bess with the Atlanta Opera, Leonora cover in Il Trovatore at the Opéra Bastille, Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro in a production that toured France and Belgium, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni as a member of the young artist program at Seattle Opera, and Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro at the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Israel.

As a member of the prestigious Centre de Formation Lyrique at the Opera National de Paris, Ms. Williams was invited to sing on a Radio France broadcast during an interview and retrospective on the renowned pianist, Dalton Baldwin. She also performed with Thomas Hampson in concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet, and won the Lyric Artist prize given every year by the Bastille’s Cercle Carpeaux. She was a winner of the Concours Clermont-Ferrand and a finalist in the Concours Reine Elisabeth, and a recipient of a Solti Foundation career grant. Subsequently, she sang recitals and concerts in France and Belgium, as well as Lucy in The Telephone, Susanna in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il Segreto di Susanna and Anna in Puccini’s Le Villi.

The Philadelphia native has been a Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is a graduate of Iowa’s Luther College, where she sang her first operatic role, the title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.