[5] Brancato made her professional debut with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1934 as Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto; being offered the role just a day prior after Marion Talley walked out of the production.
[1] In 1944 Brancato portrayed Madame Boticini in the original Broadway production of Fritz Kreisler's Rhapsody at the New Century Theatre.
[1] In the early 1950s she starred in several operettas at the Paper Mill Playhouse, including the roles of Marianne Beaunoir in Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon (1950);[10] Nina Hagerup in Robert Wright and George Forrest's Song of Norway (1951);[11] and Yum-Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1953).
[12] In 1952 she performed the role of Sybil in Rudolf Friml's The Firefly with ballerina Patricia Bowman as her castmate at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (PCLO).
[13] In 1953 she returned to the PCLO in the title role of Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta with tenor Brian Sullivan as her romantic interest in 1953.