The French soprano Mélissa Petit was born in Saint-Raphaël. In the 2025/26 season, prior to her return to the Salzburg Festival as Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims), she has sung Angelica in Handel’s Orlando at the Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine, the Théâtre de Caen and the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) alongside Cecilia Bartoli at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and in leading European concert venues. This season she has also performed with numerous prestigious orchestras and ensembles including Les Talens Lyriques, il Pomo d’Oro, Le Concert de la Loge, Les Arts Florissants and a nocte temporis, and participated in recording projects with Les Talens Lyriques and institutions such as the Palazzetto Bru Zane and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
Her recent successes have included Servilia (La clemenza di Tito) and Freia and Woglinde (Das Rheingold) in Monte Carlo, her acclaimed debut in the title role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at the Theater an der Wien, Ilia (Idomeneo) in her house debuts at the Berlin and Stuttgart State Operas, Servilia and Gluck’s Euridice on European concert tours with Cecilia Bartoli, her role debut as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Amenaide (Tancredi) at the Bregenz Festival and collaborations with Les Arts Florissants, il Pomo d’Oro, Les Accents, Le Concert de la Loge, Ensemble Pygmalion, the Hungarian National Philharmonic and various other important ensembles and orchestras.
Mélissa Petit made her Salzburg debut at the 2021 Whitsun Festival as Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. She has returned since to sing both Euridice and Servilia and in a series of concerts, most recently Mozart’s Mass in C minor in 2025 under Gianluca Capuano.
Mélissa Petit studied singing in her home town and in Nice, before becoming a member first of the International Opera Studio of Hamburg State Opera and later of the Zurich Opera House. Since 2017 she has achieved great success as a freelancer in major roles including Micaëla (Carmen), Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Bregenz Festival and Juliette at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.
