The French soprano Mélissa Petit was born in Saint-Raphaël and studied singing in her home town and in Nice, before beginning her career in 2010 as a member of the Hamburg State Opera’s International Opera Studio. After three years at the Opera Studio and two as a freelancer she joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera House in 2015, singing roles such as Sophie (Werther), Marzelline (Fidelio), Ännchen (Der Freischütz) and Créuse in Charpentier’s Médée.
In 2017 Mélissa Petit resumed a freelance singing career, in which she has enjoyed great success in various principal roles including Micaëla (Carmen) and Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Bregenz Festival, and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. She has appeared as a guest artist at the Paris Opéra in the roles of Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore) and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte). In 2019 she performed Aricie in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie in a co-production of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Zurich Opera House.
In 2019 she won third prize in the Paris Opera Competition, which opened the doors to various French opera houses for her. For example, in 2021 she sang Anna in a concert performance of Boieldieu’s La Dame blanche in Limoges; she returned there in January 2023 to perform the role in a staged production.
Mélissa Petit made her Salzburg Festival debut at the 2021 Whitsun Festival as Bellezza (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) and as Servilia in a concert performance of La clemenza di Tito, both under Gianluca Capuano. She has also sung Servilia in Zurich, Monte Carlo and on a tour with Cecilia Bartoli to some of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls. During the 2022/23 season she made an acclaimed role debut in the title role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the Theater an der Wien and returned to the Salzburg Festival as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
Highlights of the 2023/24 season have included Ginevra (Ariodante) under William Christie and her role debut as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Ilia (Idomeneo) for her house debut at the Berlin State Opera and Juliette at the Theater an der Wien. She will return to the Bregenz Festival in July 2024 to sing Amenaide in concert performances of Rossini’s Tancredi.
