During the early years of her career, she performed in many smaller venues, examples being her Lucia in several Italian houses, including those in Pavia and Cremona (October 2007), then
Zürich Opera House in late 2008, Florence in early 2009, and in Geneva in March 2010. Other roles taken up during these years included Desdemona in Verdi's
Otello in July 2008, and Gilda in
Rigoletto in Como one year later. She appeared as Amina in Bellini's
La sonnambula in Como, St. Gallen, Pavia, and Cremona in October/November 2010, followed by a run of Elvira in Doizetti's
I puritani in four smaller Italian houses in October 2010/11. Performances elsewhere have included those at the
Teatro San Carlo (Lucia in 2011), the
Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro,
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the
Teatro La Fenice (with a Lucia in May/June 2011 and some performances as Elvira in May 2012), She has collaborated with conductors such as
Daniel Oren,
Kent Nagano, Ralf Weikart,
Donato Renzetti,
Vladimir Ashkenazy,
Wayne Marshall,
Christian Thielemann,
David Parry and
Nello Santi. In May 2013 Pratt received the Italian award, La Siola d'Oro, for coloratura sopranos in honour of Italian soprano
Lina Pagliughi (1907–1980). Performances in 2014 included Lucia at La Scala (February) followed by the same role in Amsterdam, Violetta in Verdi's
La traviata in Melbourne in May, and Donna Anna in Mozart's
Don Giovanni at
La Fenice. At the opera houses of Rome and Florence, her role debut as
Semiramide in Marseille and later in Washington DC, her debut at the
Arena di Verona as Rosina in Rossini's
Il barbiere di Siviglia and her role debut as Amenaide in
Tancredi in Lausanne, among others. The 2016 performances included her debut at the
Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Desdemona in Rossini's
Otello, her debut at the ABAO Bilbao in
La sonnambula, followed by performances of her highly acclaimed Lucia di Lammermoor held for
Teatro Regio di Torino and
Victorian Opera in Melbourne. The year also marked the addition of two new Donizetti operas to her repertoire with
Linda di Chamounix performed for
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and ''
Rosmonda d'Inghilterra first premiered in Florence with Maggio Musicale in concert form and then fully staged for the new Donizetti Festival in Bergamo. Finally, she completed the year performing the role of the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute'' for her debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York on Christmas and New Year's Eve. 2017 was opened with Verdi's
Rigoletto for Opera de Oviedo in Spain where she performed during the year in Las Palmas (debuting
La fille du régiment), Valencia (
Tancredi), Bilbao (
Don Pasquale), Barcelona (debuting ''
L'elisir d'amore'') and a tour in Finland for the
Savonlinna Opera Festival with Madrid's
Teatro Real (
I puritani). Scheduled staged performances include Verdi's
La traviata conducted by
Roberto Abbado in Shanghai performed in February,
La sonnambula in Melbourne with
Victorian Opera,
I puritani in Budapest and
Le comte Ory in Dortmund. Other performances worth mentioning include a special concert with extracts from
The Magic Flute to be held at the
Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, conducted by
Gustavo Dudamel. 2018 marked her return to the New York Metropolitan with the title role of
Lucia di Lammermoor and a special concert performance of
Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Roberto Abbado on 12 September for the 40-year commemoration of the death of
Maria Callas, to open the season for
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. In 2020, Pratt debuted in the role of Zerbinetta in
Ariadne auf Naxos, in the 1912 original version and sung in Italian, at the
Festival della Valle d'Itria. In 2025, Pratt performed the role of Partenope 1 at the posthumous premiere of
Ennio Morricone's only operatic work,
Partenope.
Rossini roles and premieres In addition to appearances in operas by
Rossini, such as her 2010 performances as Desdemona in the composer's
Otello at the
Rossini in Wildbad Festival, Pratt has been featured in significant premieres of two of the composer's rarer works. These include the title role in
Armida in its United Kingdom premiere in 2010 and, two years later, the United States premiere of
Ciro in Babilonia.
Armida was given by the
Garsington Opera Festival in 2010, where critic Andrew Clark noted: "what sets the performance alight is Jessica Pratt's Armida. This young English soprano has a ringing top, good looks, stage temperament and enough vocal agility to make sense of Rossini's love-struck heroine." Another critic, Robert Farr, reviewing the same production, notes: As Armida, hers was the most amazing vocal performance of the evening. The role is one of the several manifestly vocally difficult and demanding ones that Rossini wrote for his mistress, and later wife, Isabella Colbran, one of the most renowned divas of the day. Not only are its vocal demands considerable, but also it is a very big sing too concluding with the final display aria demanded by all singers in Rossini's time to finish off the performance ... [L]ike the rest of the audience, I appreciated the fact that she sang it with musicality, clarity of diction and purity and beauty of tone, all allied to the smooth vocal extension and flexibility evident throughout her whole performance. Then, in 2012, Pratt sang the role of Amira in
Ciro in Babilonia at the
Caramoor Belcanto Festival which resulted in
The New York Times critic,
Anthony Tommasini, noting that "the soprano Jessica Pratt was also outstanding as Amira, singing with gleaming sound, free and easy high notes, agile coloratura runs and lyrical grace." This production went on to be presented by the same cast at the following month's
Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro where it was recorded. Prior to this, in 2011 at the same Rossini Festival, Pratt had performed the title role in the second staged production of
Adelaide di Borgogna since 1825. In another Rossini role, March 2013 was given over to Matilde in
Guillaume Tell at Opera Festival Alejandro Granda in Lima, Peru. == Repertoire ==