Marquita Lister

Marquita Lister (born 24 April 1961) is an American operatic soprano. She has sung with major companies in the U.S. and abroad, specializing in the lirico-spinto repertoire. Lister is considered one of the leading interpreters of Bess in Porgy and Bess, having performed the role hundreds of times in companies across the globe, and she is also renowned for her portrayals of Aida and Salome, two signature roles.

Lister was born in Washington, D.C. She attended Western High School before it became the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts, and then she transferred to Woodrow Wilson High School from which she graduated. She won several vocal competitions as a teenager. She went on to graduate from the New England Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree and earned a Master of Music degree from Oklahoma City University, where she studied with famed vocal teacher Inez Silberg. In 1983 she won the regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions.

Lister apprenticed at the Houston Grand Opera (1987–89), and made her mainstage debut with the company as the title heroine in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in 1992. She went on to sing principal soprano roles at the San Francisco Opera, Portland Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, and the Vancouver Opera among others. She portrayed the role of Bess in a world tour that played the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the La Scala in Milan. She sang Musetta in La bohème at the Arena di Verona Festival, then Bess, yet again, at the Bregenzer Festspiele and New York City Opera, where she won the Diva Award (2002). She also appeared as Bess in New York City Opera's "Live From Lincoln Center" PBS broadcast of Porgy and Bess on March 20, 2002.

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