Patricia Brooks

Patricia Brooks (November 7, 1937 – January 22, 1993), was a lyric soprano, actress, and opera singer, who performed primarily with the New York City Opera. She was known for her acting ability as much as for her voice.

Brooks was born in Manhattan and attended the High School of Music and Art, studying dance with Martha Graham. Following a knee injury, she turned to theatrical performance, studied singing with Margaret Harshaw and Daniel Ferro, and studied acting with Uta Hagen.

In 1960, she was performing as a member of the chorus in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and left to make her debut at the New York City Opera on October 12 as Marianne in Der Rosenkavalier.

Brooks performed 29 roles with the New York City Opera in the 1960s and 1970s. Peter G. Davis of the New York Times called her performance as the title character of Massenet's Manon "extraordinary," writing that she "sang splendidly" and "captured all the multiple facets of this intriguing character with a variety of dramatic nuance." With the Opera Society of Washington, she performed the finale to Act I of Mozart's The Magic Flute at a White House state dinner during the Kennedy presidency. She performed arias from La sonnambula and Lucia di Lammermoor at the reopening of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on January 30, 1968.

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