Biographie

Trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique with Rachel Yakar and discovered by William Christie, Patricia Petibon has made a name for herself as one of the most versatile singers in her fach, with a repertoire ranging from French Baroque to contemporary music. Since starting out in 1996 at the Opéra de Paris in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, she has made forays through music history, from Mozart to Offenbach, Donizetti and Verdi to Poulenc and Berg, on the world's greatest stages.

Baroque music has played an important role in Patricia Petibon's career, with notable performances of Rameau's Les indes galantes (Phani & Zima) with William Christie at the Paris Opéra and Ariodante (Dalinda) under the musical direction of Marc Minkowski, the reopening of the Théâtre du Châtelet with Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice under John Eliot Gardiner, as well as Ariodante (Ginevra) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Alcina (Morgana) at La Scala in Milan. The artist celebrated a particular success as Giunia (Lucio Silla) at the Theater an der Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, both of whom shared a close musical bond through their many collaborations.
Highlights of her career have included the title role in Berg's Lulu in Geneva, at the Salzburg Festival and at the Liceu in Barcelona (also released on DVD by DGG). In addition, Patricia Petibon has appeared on stage as Asteria in Mozart's Mitridate in Vienna and Munich, and was heard as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto in Munich, as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Bastille in Paris, and as Giunia (Lucio Silla) in Barcelona and Madrid. At the Théâtre des Champs Elysées she was acclaimed by audiences and press as Asteria in Mozart's Mitridate, as Blanche in Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites, as Mélisande in a new production of Debussy's Pélleas et Mélisande, and as Euridice in Orfeo et Euridice. She has been a regular guest at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where she enjoyed success as Susanna in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, as Ginevra in Handel's Ariodante and in the title role as Alcina.

In autumn 2016, the soprano received critical acclaim for her Manon in a new production of Massenet's opera at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, which was later revived at the Opéra Comique in 2018. In the 2018/2019 season, Patricia Petibon made her debut as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata at Malmö Opera. In the fall of 2019, she celebrated a great success with all three female roles in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann at the Monnaie in Brussels. In spring 2021, she made a magnificent role debut with Poulenc's La Voix Humaine and Thierry Escaich's Point d'Orgue directed by Olivier Py at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.

Recent highlights have included concerts of Ravel's "Shéhérazade" with Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth, and with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Jérémie Rohrer. She has further presented French operetta with the Orchestre National de France under Enrique Mazzola. In 2023, she appeared in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine directed by Katie Mitchell at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, and in Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by Iván Fischer in Spoleto, Budapest, at the Elbphilharmonie and in Vicenza. In addition to numerous recitals, Patricia Petibon will tour a new programme with the French baroque ensemble Amarillis in the 2023-2024 season. In January, Patricia Petibon takes to the stage as Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Châtelet in Paris.

Close musical relationships connect Patricia Petibon with Alain Altinoglu, Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico, Bertrand de Billy, Ivor Bolton, Frédéric Chaslin, Myung Whun Chung, Héloïse Gaillard and Amarillis, Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée, Daniel Harding, Bernard Haitink, Kristjan Järvi, Louis Langré, Andrea Marcon and La Cetra as well as Venice Baroque, Josep Pons, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles, Christophe Rousset, Jérémie Rohrer, Paavo Järvi and many others.

Patricia Petibon feels equally at home on the Lied stage, performing regularly in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg, the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Salzburg Festival, Graz, Geneva, Dortmund, Hamburg, London's Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and Bilbao. In the 2019/2020 season could be heard together with Susan Manoff with her new Lied programme “L'Amour, la mort, la mer” in Luxembourg, Montpellier, Lyon, Toulouse, Paris, Strasbourg, Berlin and Vienna.

The artist's discography now includes titles such as “Les Fantaisies De Patricia Petibon”, which takes a diverse foray into her repertoire, the album “French Touch”, a solo album of French Baroque arias, Orlando Paladino with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and La passione di Gesù with Fabio Biondi. Further collaborations on disc include Handel duets with Emmanuelle Haïm, Werther and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. From 2008 to 2016, Patricia Petibon was an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon. This period included releases of arias by Gluck, Mozart and Haydn with Concerto Köln and Daniel Harding, the recording “Rosso”, featuring Italian baroque arias with La Cetra and Andrea Marcon, and “Melancolia”, a disc of Spanish repertoire, which she recorded together with the Orquesta Nacional de España under Josep Pons. In 2012, her solo record entitled “Nouveau Monde” featured Baroque arias and songs recorded together with La Cetra and Andrea Marcon. This was followed in 2014 by “La Belle Excentrique”, a recording of Mélodies Françaises that has won numerous awards.

Since 2019, Patricia Petibon has been under contract with Sony Music Masterworks. The first recording under the Sony Classical label entitled "L'amour, la mort, la mer" was released at the end of January 2020, followed by "La Traversée" with La Cetra and Andrea Marcon in March 2022.

(February 2024)