Opera Innovators Series: Master Class with Patricia Racette

Established as one of the foremost interpreters of Janáček and Puccini, Patricia Racette has garnered international acclaim for her portrayals of the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Jenůfa, and Kátya Kabanová, as well as La bohème (Mimì) and the three principal soprano roles in both Il trittico and Dialogues des Carmélites. She has also made a significant mark in Verdi’s repertoire, most notably in La traviata (Violetta), and has appeared in leading opera houses and concert halls around the world.

Racette made her directorial debut with a new production of La traviata at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) in the summer of 2018. Other OTSL productions have included Susannah and La voix humaine, the latter of which she both directed and sang the leading role. In the summer of 2026, she directed a new production of 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; 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 upcoming directorial debuts at Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago in the coming seasons.

Racette was recently named 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 remains 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, 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, she also presented a new class entitled How Cross-Genre Singing Informs the Classical Voice.

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Racette studied jazz and music education at the University of North Texas and continued her formative training with the Merola and Adler Fellowship programs at San Francisco Opera, where she went on to sing over 30 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 in the Los Angeles Opera’s production of The Ghosts of Versailles.

Patricia Racette is presented as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Opera Innovators Series in partnership with the Boston Lyric Opera.