Versatile singing actress Michelle Trainor is known for her “powerful, penetrating soprano” (Wall Street Journal) and as both a “comic genius” and “vocal treat” (Boston Globe). An alumna of the Boston Lyric Opera’s Emerging Artist initiative, Trainor has become “a favorite of the Boston opera scene,” (Schmopera) in productions of contemporary opera including The Handmaid’s Tale, Burke & Hare and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In standard rep like Macbeth, Barber of Seville and Threepenny Opera, she was described by Berkshire Fine Arts as “an ebullient comedian” who steals “every scene she is in with her pure joie de vivre.”
Ms. Trainor is excited to return to Opera Columbus for the 2024-2025 season. She will be singing the role of Mrs. Peachum in Kurt Weil’s The Threepenny Opera and will be heard as the soprano soloist in Vaughn Williams’ A Sea symphony with Lexington Symphony.
Michelle’s 2023-2024 season brings her back to Boston Lyric Opera where she is covering the role of Tisbe in La Cenerentola. In January she will join Boston Symphony Orchestra in a re-engagement singing Aksinya in the Shostakovich opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
Her 2022-2023 season includes performances as Clorinda in Opera Columbus’ production of La Cenerentola, and as Lucy in Odyssey Opera’s production of Awakenings that will be recorded by Boson Modern Orchestra Project. In the spring of 2022, Ms. Trainor performed as a soloist in Wozzeck in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall.
In the summer of 2021, she made her Bulgarian debut creating the role of Gertrude in the world premiere and recording of Joseph Summer’s Hamlet in a collaboration between the State Opera Ruse, Parma Recordings and the Shakespeare Concert Series. Engagements canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic included singing Aksinya in Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall, along with a Deutsche Gramophone recording of the production, and performing the role of Jill-All-Alone in Merrie England with Odyssey Opera.
In the fall of 2021 she will be singing the role of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with IlluminArts in Miami, FL, with whom she also performed as guest soloist in the online collaboration, “Unmasked” in December 2020. She opens 2022 with a concert at First Church in Nashua, NH entitled, “Diva, Diva, Divo” and later, performs Wozzeckwith the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall.
Possessing a unique voice that encompasses soprano, mezzo and character roles across vocal fachs, Ms. Trainor is always up to try any new role, especially if it gives her the chance to hone her fierce comedic instincts as with Berta (Barber of Seville), Marcellina (Marriage of Figaro) or Mrs. Peachum (Threepenny Opera) and dive deep into an interesting character like her “fiery, remorseful” (Arts Fuse) Brangain in The Love Potion.
