Marion Pratnicki
Phone: (336)770-3256
Email: pratnickim@ncarts.edu

Mezzo-soprano Marion Pratnicki made her operatic debut as Berta in the 1982 Opera Theatre of Rochester production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Since then the Long island native has appeared with opera companies throughout the United States and Canada, most often in her specialty, a variety of character roles. Most recent engagements include a return to L'Opera de Montreal and Florida Grand Opera for Le Nozze di Figaro, Romeo et Juliette with Fort Worth Opera, and a debut with Atlanta Opera in Eugene Onegin. Upcoming performances completing the 2004 season include Mikado with Hawaii Opera Theatre and Ballad of Baby Doe with Augusta Opera.

Her 2001-02 engagements included Faust in Miami, Die Zauberflöte with The Colorado Symphony and both Les Dialogues des Carmelites and Little Women with Glimmerglass Opera.

During the 2000-2001 season, Ms. Pratnicki, who is an artist-faculty member in voice at the North Carolina School of the Arts as well as at the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, sang Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Piedmont Opera Theatre prior to returning to The Glimmerglass Opera as Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia.

In the fall of 1999, she returned to New York City Opera as Dame Quickly in Falstaff. For the rest of the 1999-2000 season, she returned to both The Dallas Opera as the forester’s Wife in Cunning Little Vixen and to Florida Grand Opera as Filipeyvna in Eugene Onegin. She also debuted at Oklahoma’s OK Mozart Festival.

The 1998-99 season found her returning to Opera Grand Rapids as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, to The Dallas Opera as Marthe in Faust, to Hawaii Opera Theatre for another production of Ballo as well as for Elektra and to Opera Pacific as the Marquise in La Fille du Regiment.

In recent seasons she has performed with The Dallas Opera in Katya Kabanova, Jenufa and Elektra, with Opera Festival of New Jersey in Le Nozze di Figaro and Susannah, with The Knoxville Opera in Il Trovatore and Un Ballo in Maschera and with Florida Grand Opera in Le Nozze di Figaro.

In Canada Ms. Pratnicki has appeared in productions of La Fille du Regiment with The Edmonton Opera, Candide and Jenufa with The Vancouver Opera and Romeo et Juliette and Le Nozze di Figaro with L’Opera de Montreal.

Well-known for her comic interpretations in the works of Gilbert & Sullivan, she has performed Iolanthe with The Glimmerglass Opera, Yeoman of the Guard with The Cleveland Opera, as well as The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance with Opera at Wildwood in Little Rock, among others.

Her engagements include productions of such works as L’Italiana in Algieri, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Sound of Music, Turn of the Screw, Hansel und Gretel, The Bartered Bride, Emmeline, Falstaff, Streetscene, Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Traviata, to name a few, with Orlando Opera, the Cleveland Opera, Kentucky Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Lake George Opera and The Berkshire Opera. Other companies include Tacoma Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Carolina, Virginia Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Tulsa Opera, Dayton Opera, Syracuse Opera and Sarasot a Opera.

Ms. Pratnicki’s concert credits include The Messiah with the Eerie Philharmonic; Beethoven Symphony No. 9, the Mozart Requiem, and the Verdi Requiem with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra; and Elijah with the Grand Rapids Oratorio Society.

Marion Pratnicki has served as a member of the voice faculty at both Indiana University, where she received her Master of Music, and at Western Michigan University, where she was artist-in-residence from 1987-1990. She is former apprentice artist at Chautauqua Opera and a former opera intern with Michigan Opera Theatre.