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. She also appeared throughout the United States and at the
Royal Opera at London's Covent Garden. She sang with
Plácido Domingo in
Verdi's
La traviata in 1966 in a new production directed by
Frank Corsaro and later sang in the same opera on the occasion of Domingo's U.S. conducting debut in 1973. She received outstanding reviews for many of her performances in such operas as
Tales of Hoffmann,
La Boheme, and
Rigoletto. Her repertoire also included modern works. In her first season with the New York City Opera she performed in
Werner Egk's The Inspector General. and
Lee Hoiby's Natalia Petrovna in 1964. She sang the title role in
Alban Berg's Lulu in 1974 at the
Santa Fe Opera. She retired in 1977 due to the effect of
multiple sclerosis on her breathing, but continued to teach for several years and to direct productions as an associate professor at the
State University of New York at Purchase. In her later years she spent time painting in oils and watercolor. ==References==