Mélissa Petit - NOSPR

French Soprano Mélissa Petit was born in Saint-Raphaël and studied singing both in her hometown and in Nice before joining the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera. After three years there and a further two as a freelance singer, she joined the Zurich Opera in 2015. Her roles with the company have included Sophie (Werther), Marzelline (Fidelio), Aennchen (Der Freischütz) and Créuse in Charpentier’s Médée.

Mélissa Petit resumed her freelance career in 2017 and has enjoyed great success in a series of leading roles that have included Micaëla (Carmen) and Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Bregenz Festival and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) both at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. She has also made guest appearances at the Opéra national de Paris as Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore) and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte). In 2019 she was heard as Aricie in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie in a coproduction shared by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Zurich Opera House.

The third prize in the 2019 Paris Opera Competition opened the doors to other French opera houses. In March 2021, for example, she sang Anna in a concert performance of Boieldieu’s La dame blanche in Limoges.

Mélissa Petit made her debut at the 2021 Salzburg Whitsun Festival as Bellezza (Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno) and as Servilia in a concert performance of La clemenza di Tito. She has already sung this last-named role in Zurich and Monte Carlo. In summer 2023 she will be back at the Salzburg Festival as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck.

Her most recent successes include her acclaimed debut in the title role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, a tour with Cecilia Bartoli across Europe’s most prestigious concert halls as Servilia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and her return as Anna in La dame blanche at Opéra de Limoges.

Plans include her return to Theater an der Wien as Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), her role debuts as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and her debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Ilia (Idomeneo).