Sarah Jane McMahon

Soprano

     Sarah Jane McMahon opened New York City Opera’s 2007 season as Mabel in a new production of The Pirates of Penzance and was lauded by The New York Times as “the most polished and flexible singer in the cast” and a “deft comic actress with perfectly turned cartwheels.” She will open NYCO’s 2008 season as the leading role of Soprano 2 in a new production of Purcell’s King Arthur.  Sarah Jane made her Lincoln Center debut April 2006 as Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with NYCO for which The New York Times praised her for being “bright, active, and fastidiously musical” and for which she received NYCO’s Kolozsvar Award.  Recently, Sarah Jane sang the Soprano Soloist in Carmina Burana at Avery Fisher Hall and performed Donna Clara, the Infanta in Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at Bard SummerScape Festival for which Opera News wrote, “Sarah Jane McMahon laughed and danced as the glamorous Infanta, making a golden sound with an alluring light vibrato that evoked the young Pilar Lorengar.” Upcoming performances include King Arthur at New York City Opera, a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, Maria (West Side Story) with New Orleans Opera, and Lucia (Rape of Lucretia) and Maria (West Side Story) with Central City Opera.  

    A summa cum laude graduate of both Loyola University, New Orleans, and Yale University, she was also selected by Placido Domingo to join his company, Los Angeles Opera, where she performed opposite Domingo’s Parsifal as the Fifth Flower Maiden, as Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos), and as The Milliner (Der Rosenkavalier). Other recent performances include Micaela (Carmen) and  Maria (West Side Story) with Opera Grand Rapids, Valencienne (The Merry Widow) and Musetta (La Bohème) with New Orleans Opera, Dorinda (Orlando) with Washington Concert Opera, A Night at the Operetta concert on Broadway (Opera News review: “Sarah Jane McMahon, who looks like a beautiful pageant girl from the '70s, offered a superb, stylish rendition of ‘One Kiss.'”), and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) with Opera Theater of Connecticut.

    As an apprentice with Central City Opera, Sarah Jane received the McGlone Award for Outstanding apprentice and performed Kathie in The Student Prince and Isabelle/Madeline in Face on the Barroom Floor. Sarah Jane also apprenticed with Des Moines Metro Opera where she performed Paquette in Candide and Abigail Williams in The Crucible. At age 20, she performed Sari in the U.S. premiere of Emmerich Kalman's Sari, which is available on Albany Records and for which Opera News wrote: “The singers bring fine, if not stellar voices to their roles, with the striking addition of Sarah Jane McMahon, whose soprano has a bright, pleasing sheen that recalls the young Barbara Hendricks.”