Biography

Patricia Petibon is a coloratura soprano active both in opera and on the recital stage. She has received much acclaim for her work in Baroque repertory, especially in operatic roles of Handel (Damon in Acis and Galatea), Rameau (Priestess/Shepherdess in Hippolyte et Aricie), Stefano Landi (Alessio in Il Sant'Alessio), and many more. Yet, she is equally adept in a range of later works, from Mozart (Blonde in The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Offenbach (Cupidon in Orpheus in the Underworld) to Massenet (Sophie in Werther) and Poulenc (Soeur Constance in The Dialogues of the Carmelites). Petibon's voice has a pureness of sound and both a sweetness and creaminess in the upper ranges, where she wields all manner of nuance and virtuosity to stunningly beautiful effect, as can be heard in her recording of the Queen of the Night's revenge aria ("Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen") from Mozart's The Magic Flute. Petibon has recorded for a variety of major labels, including DG, Decca, EMI Classics, Erato, Teldec, Virgin Classics, Warner Classics, and ArtHaus Musik. Petibon was born in Mantargis, France, on February 27, 1970. She studied piano as a child and graduated with a degree in musicology from the Paris Conservatory. She continued her studies at the Conservatory in voice under Rachel Yakar. At her 1995 graduation she was awarded first prize in singing. Petibon soon began appearing in concert with American-born French conductor William Christie and his orchestra Les Arts Florissants. Her earliest recordings were made with Christie, as well: a pair of Charpentier discs issued by Erato in 1996. Also in that year Petibon debuted at the Paris Opera in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie. She would return there on numerous subsequent occasions in works by Mozart, Richard Strauss, Offenbach, and others. In 1998 the (Academie) Victoire de la Musique Classique named her Best Young Talent. In 2001 and 2003, the same source cited her as Best Opera Singer. In the new century Petibon has continued to enlarge her repertory: in 2006 she appeared at the Nancy Opera singing Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and in 2008 at the Grand Theatre in Geneva as Ginevra in Handel's Ariodante. Petibon signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2008, and her first disc, Amoureuses, a collection of arias by Haydn, Mozart, and Gluck, was issued to great acclaim later that year.