Marianne Cornetti

Cornetti was appointed Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Festival Opera in November 2019. She is also on the Voice Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

After her studies, Cornetti spent three years in the Young Artists Program of Pittsburgh Opera, where she made her first stage appearance as First maid in Strauss' Elektra in 1989. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut at the end of 1993, as the Russian Nanny in Death in Venice. In New York, she had private studies with Dodi Protero, with whom she worked on the bigger roles for about ten years. She sang her first major role in 1995 at the Atlanta Opera, where she was originally going to sing Fenena in Nabucco but switched instead to Azucena in Il trovatore. After the performance, she was engaged by Hawaii Opera Theatre to sing Amneris in Aida in 1997, which led to further recognition in major roles. She finally left the Met in 1998 after five years of exclusively small roles, the last being Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana.

Her talent was discovered in her sixth grade, when a chorus teacher invited her to sing a solo. She sang "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and was then recommended to the high school choir director. Since eighth grade, she had four years of private voice lessons before attending college. After graduating from Knoch High School in 1981, she was enrolled into the Manhattan School of Music. Due to poor experience she transferred to College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. A thyroid problem then developed in her sophomore year, forcing her to suspend her studies. After a year's treatment she lost self-confidence and gave up returning in her midway to school.

Marianne Cornetti (born 1962) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano.