Ana María Martínez


Ana María Martínez is a Puerto Rican soprano.

Early life

Martínez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico; she is the daughter of Puerto Rican opera singer Evangelína Colón and Cuban psychoanalyst Ángel Martínez. Martínez' grandparents originated in Spain and France, and migrated to the Caribbean islands. Martínez grew up with a strict Catholic upbringing. She briefly attended the Boston Conservatory as a musical theater major, but dropped out and later received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the Juilliard School.

Career

In November 2005 Martínez debut with the Metropolitan Opera in Carmen as Micaëla.
In 2006 she was featured in Salzburg Festival's production of Così fan tutte as Fiordiligi.
In February 2016 she was Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera.
She returned to Così fan tutte as Fiordiligi at Lyric Opera of Chicago in February 2018. In April, she took up the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas at Florida Grand Opera. In July she performed in Falstaff at Royal Opera House as Alice Ford. She portrayed Élisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos opening on 22 September at Los Angeles Opera.
In January 2019 she brought performances of Florencia to Houston Grand Opera. In February she was appointed Houston Grand Opera's first-ever artistic advisor. In May she portrayed Soleá in El gato montés at Los Angeles Opera.

Special performances

On 11 March 2016, Martínez sang Bach/Gounod's "Ave Maria" and "Pie Jesu" from Fauré's Requiem during the funeral services of Nancy Reagan.
She provided the singing voice for Monica Bellucci's character in the third season of Mozart in the Jungle.

Personal life

Martínez met tenor Chad Shelton in 2000; they married and had one son. They divorced about seven years later. She has been living in Houston since December 2002.

Awards

Martínez has won prizes including the Pepita Embil Award, Operalia, and first prize at the Eleanor McCollum Awards. She won a Latin Grammy in 2001 for Classical Album for Isaac Albéniz's Merlin with Carlos Álvarez, Plácido Domingo, Jane Henschel and conductor José de Eusebio with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.

Discography