Established as a great interpreter of Janáček and Puccini, Patricia Racette has gained particular acclaim for her portrayals of the title roles of Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Jenůfa, Kátya Kabanová, La Bohème, and all three lead soprano roles in both Il Trittico and Les Dialogues des Carmélites. Additionally, she made impact in Verdi’s repertory, most notably as Violetta in La Traviata. Her repertory expanded to include triumphant portrayals of Strauss’s Salome, Minnie in La Fancuilla del West, Katerina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Magda in Menotti’s The Consul, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Kostelnička in Jenůfa, and Elle in La voix humaine.  In recent years, she added several new roles to her repertoire, including Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, The Witch and the Mother in Hansel und Gretel, and Desirée Armfeldt in A Little Night Music. She has been a favorite on The Met: Live in HD series as both leading lady in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, I Pagliacci, and Peter Grimes, as well as a celebrated host for multiple other productions.

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Ms. Racette has long been a champion of new works, originating roles in multiple world premieres, including Leslie Crosbie in Paul Moravec’s The Letter at The Santa Fe Opera, Roberta Alden in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline at the Santa Fe Opera (broadcast on PBS/Albany Records audio), Love Simpson in Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera, and most recently, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne at the San Francisco Opera.

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No stranger to the concert stage, Ms. Racette has sung with leading conductors at some of the most lauded orchestras in the industry, including the New York Philharmonic, The Chicago Symphony (at both the CSO and The Ravinia Festival), The Boston Symphony, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony, and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.

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Aside from her classical canon, Ms. Racette returned to her jazz roots with her album Diva on Detour in 2013. Along with pianist Craig Terry, she has performed this one-woman show in over fifty venues across the U.S. and abroad. More recently, she curated her show Patricia Sings Piaf in collaboration with Mr. Terry. They premiered the show at The Harris Theater in Chicago and have since taken it to The Presidio Theatre in San Francisco, The Sheldon in St. Louis, as well as Seattle Opera.

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Ms. Racette made her directorial debut with a new production of La Traviata at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis [OTSL] in the summer of 2018. Other OTSL productions have included Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and Poulenc’s La voix humaine, the latter in which she both directed and sang the leading role. In the summer of 2026, she directs a new production of Previns’ A Streetcar Named Desire for the company. Her Susannah will also be mounted at Opera Omaha. Other recent productions have included Roméo et Juliette at Arizona Opera, Don Giovanni for the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at Rice University, The Consul for San Francisco Conservatory, The Lindemann Patron Scenes Concert for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Program, and both Rising Stars and An Evening of Scenes for the Ryan Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. She looks forward to directorial debuts at Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago in the coming seasons.

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Ms. Racette was recently named the new Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She also continues to serve as the company’s Artistic Director of the Gerdine Young Artist and Richard Gaddes Festival Artist programs, which she has led since 2019. She continues to be sought after as a Master Teacher to foster artistry in the next generation of classical singers. In January 2017, she presented the pilot program of her intensive seminar, Integrative Artistry, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has since presented it at The Juilliard School, the Washington National Opera, Arizona Opera’s Marion Roose Pullin Studio, and New England Conservatory. A regular guest clinician at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she also recently presented a new seminar entitled How Cross-genre Singing Informs the Classical Voice.

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Born and raised in New Hampshire, Ms. Racette studied jazz and music education at North Texas State University and continued her formative training with the Merola and Adler Fellowship programs at San Francisco Opera, where she went on to sing over thirty leading roles with the company.  Among her recognitions are an Opera News Award, the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and the Marian Anderson Award. She also received the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for her performance of Marie Antoinette in the Los Angeles Opera’s production of The Ghosts of Versailles.

 

DECEMBER 2025