Biography
Mélissa Petit was born in Saint-Raphaël in the South of France. She began studying singing at the age of 14 at the Music School of Saint-Raphaёl. In 2009 she attended the University of Musicology in Nice and worked as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Saint-Raphaël. In the same year she won 2nd prize at the International Competition “Concorso Musica Sacra di Roma” and later 1st prize at the national singing competition at Béziers in France.
Between 2010 and 2013, Mélissa Petit was a member of the International Opera Studio in Hamburg, and in August 2011 she appeared for the first time at the Baroque Music Festival in Innsbruck as Regimbert/Lombardischer Schutzgeist in Telemann’s Flavius Bertaridus, König der Longobarden. In March 2012 Mélissa won first prize and the ‘Prix de l’opéra de Bordeaux’ at the international competition ‘Musiques au Coeur du Médoc’ in Bordeaux. In November 2012 she was chosen by the Hamburgische Staatsoper to represent them in the Stella Maris competition aboard the prestigious cruise ship MS Europa. There she won two prizes: an audition Deutsche Grammophon and a contract for concerts at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. The competition was broadcast on German and French television as a four-part documentary: ‘Sängerkrieg auf Hoher See’ by Ralf Pleger.
In August 2013, Mélissa won third prize at the ‘Queen Sonja International Music Competition’ in Oslo, Norway in the presence of her Majesty Queen Sonja. The same year, she was invited to appear on the television programme ‘Stars of tomorrow’, presented by the tenor Rolando Villazon and broadcast on the French/German television channel ARTE. She worked again with ARTE in 2015 on the television programme ‘Musik Entdeckung mit Thomas Engelbrock’. In 2014, she sang the role of Edilia in the new co-production of Händel’s Almira, Queen of Castille at Hamburg State Opera and at the Festival of Early Music in Innsbruck conducted by Alessandro De Marchi. She also made her debut as Soeur Constance in Poulenc’s Le dialogue des Carmélites in Hamburg conducted by Simone Young.
Reviews
“[… ] Mélissa Petit was delightful as Edilia, with a luminous soprano who has in the coloratura enormous mobility.”
“Der junge Opernstudio-Star Mélissa Petit aber betört mit anschmiegsam jungmädchenhaftem Sopran, liebreizender Verführungssüße und fabelhaften Stimmfarben. Sie gewinnt ihrer Cleopatra auch interessante darstellerische Facetten ab: Die legendäre Schönheit ist hier mehr die emotional noch unstete Kindfrau als die Strippen ziehende Strategin der Liebe. So singt und spielt sich die junge Französin direkt in die Herzen ihres Publikums.”
More Reviews
“La Française Mélissa Petit, jeune soprano à l’émission littéralement angélique, mène sereinement la ligne dévolue à L’Esprit Protecteur des Lombards (Der Lombardische Schutzgeist).”
Bertrand Bolognesi, Anaclase
“Una menzione speciale va per la fresca voce del soprano Mélissa Petit (dama di compagnia di Elisabetta) della compagnia giovane del teatro, la cui “dressing table song” è un gioiello della partitura […]”
Alexei Goukov, OperaClick
“Mélissa Petit war spontan beeindruckender.”
Joachim Mischke, Hamburger Abendblatt
“Ein subtiler Höhepunkt war die einzige Arie von Mélissa Petit als Regimbert/Lombardischer Schutzgeist.”
Michael Pitz-Grewenig, klassik.com
