Elsa Benoit
The French soprano Elsa Benoit studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Dutch National Opera Academy, and went on to be a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera from 2013 to 2015.
In the 2015/16 season she became a member of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, singing roles including Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Micaëla (Carmen) and Despina (Così fan tutte). From 2016 to 2019 she was a member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera, where she performed roles such as Shepherd Boy (Tannhäuser), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Frasquita (Carmen), Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Musetta (La bohème), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Emilie in Rameau’s Les Indes galantes and Poppea (Agrippina).
Since then she has performed at the Paris Opéra, the Opéra Comique, the Komische Oper Berlin, the theatres of Rennes, Lille, Nantes and Toulouse and at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Highlights in 2023/24 included Sophie in Massenet’s Werther under Thomas Hengelbrock in a new production by Robert Carsen in Baden-Baden and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in Ted Huffman’s production, conducted by George Petrou, at the Cologne Opera. On the concert platform she sang Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, Fauré’s Requiem with the Munich Philharmonic under Andrew Manze, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic under Robin Ticciati and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher under Alan Gilbert.
Previous appearances as a sought-after concert soloist have included Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Oviedo Filarmonía under Lucas Macías Navarro, a Christmas concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at St Stephen’s Cathedral, Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with the Berlin Philharmonic under Emmanuelle Haïm, Haydn’s The Seasons with the Gaechinger Cantorey under Hans-Christoph Rademann and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem under Manfred Honeck.
In 2012 Elsa Benoit was awarded three prizes at the international singing competition Symphonies d’Automne, in 2013 she received the Château Brane-Cantenac Award from the international singing competition Musique au coeur du Médoc and in 2017 she received the Austrian Music Theatre Award.