[1] Opera News stated that, "Flanigan has enjoyed one of the most distinctive careers of any artist of her generation, one marked by a high volume of contemporary works.
Flanigan credits much of her early experience to the singular interest of Dr. Robert Larsen of the Des Moines Metro Opera where in 1985 she was cast as Clorinda in Gioachino Rossini's La Cenerentola and as Curley's Wife in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men.
This was followed by performances in 1987 as Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw; 1989 as Rosalinda in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus; and 1990 in Britten's Peter Grimes.
In 1990 Flanigan sang the role of Christine in Richard Strauss' Intermezzo with the Glimmerglass Opera,[6] returning there two years later to portray the Governess in The Turn of the Screw.
[7] In 1991 she made her debut at the Seattle Opera as Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, later returning there as the Governess and as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata.
[8] Flanigan made her debut at the New York City Opera (NYCO) in October 1990 as Musetta in La bohème with Jianyi Zhang as Rodolfo, Geraldine McMillian as Mimi, Peter Barcza as Marcello, and Joseph Colaneri conducting.
Some of the other roles she has sung with the company include Ursula in Mathis der Maler (1995), the Governess in The Turn of the Screw (1996), Anna I in Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins (1997), Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth (1997 and 2001), Abigail Borden in Jack Beeson's Lizzie Borden (1999), Greta in Drattell's Festival of Regrets (1999), Susan B. Anthony in Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All (2000), Elizabeth I in Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux (2000), Marietta in Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt (2001), Christine Mannon in Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra (2003), the title role in Samuel Barber's Vanessa (2007), and Cleopatra in Barber's Antony and Cleopatra (2008–2009).
[14] On 6 September 1996 she made her debut at the San Francisco Opera as Yaroslavna in Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor, with Sergei Leiferkus in the title role.