[1] She has portrayed principal roles in the world premieres of several operas, including works by composers Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Catán, Carlisle Floyd, Thomas Pasatieri, and Stephen Paulus.
Her lyric soprano voice is aptly suited to such Mozartian roles as Susanna, Zerlina, and Despina, Norina (Don Pasquale) and Sophie (Werther), but it also has considerable power and range, suitable for the heavier parts of Ellen Orford, Mimì and Violetta.
[3] She worked briefly in advertising in New York City, before entering the Professional Studies program at the Juilliard School where she was a pupil of voice teachers Hans Heinz and Daniel Ferro.
[1] Greenawald made her professional opera début in 1974 as Theresa in the New York première of Francis Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias which was staged by the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC).
[24] Greenawald made her international debut at the Dutch National Opera as Susanna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in 1980.
At the Seattle Opera Greenawald appeared as Natasha in Prokofiev's War and Peace (1990)[1] and Melisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1993).
[35] She appeared at the Welsh National Opera as Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (1994)[36] and Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (1995), the latter with conductor Carlo Rizzi.
[37] In 1995 Greenawald returned to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to create the role of Helen in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus's The Woman at Otowi Crossing.
[43] In 2002 she portrayed the Beggar Woman in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd with Bryn Terfel in the title role.