Joanna Bruno

Joanna Mary Bruno (born 1944), also known as Joanna Bruno-Clarke, is an American operatic soprano who had an active international career during the 1960s and 1970s. A lyric soprano, she often performed in operas by Giacomo Puccini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In the United States, she performed frequently with the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera, and in Europe she performed in multiple operas with the Dutch National Opera and the Scottish Opera among others. She is best remembered for her performances in the operas of Gian Carlo Menotti, notably creating the role of Cora Arnek in the world premiere of Menotti's The Most Important Man in 1971.

Life and career

Born in West Orange, New Jersey, Bruno began her vocal music studies with Katherine Eastment in New Jersey. She studied opera with Jennie Tourel at the Juilliard School where she graduated as an undergraduate student in 1967.

She continued graduate studies at the Juilliard Opera Center with whom she performed in the United States premieres of Francesco Cavalli's Ormindo (as Nerillo in 1968) and Arthur Honegger's Antigone. She later pursued further studies in opera with Luigi Ricci at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She was an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera in 1967, and she performed the role of Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Aspen Music Festival while a student at the Aspen Opera Center in 1966.

Bruno made her professional opera debut in 1968 as Monica in Menotti's The Medium at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.