Sarah Bissonnette made her debut as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette this past April with Opéra du Royaume. She also played an “impeccable Siebel” (Huss, Le Devoir) in the recent production of Faust presented by the Festival d’Opéra de Québec. In 2021, she performed in Opéra de Québec’s The Barber of Seville, and in the Valentine’s Day gala. For her first Rosina, she was described as “a genuine mezzo with a wonderful colour, bold from top to bottom of her range, totally believable” (Leslie Barcza.) She also portrayed Hannah After in the Quebec premiere of As One (Kaminsky) with the Montreal Classical Orchestra’s string quartet. A versatile mezzo-soprano, she sang the Exorcist in the world premiere of Ghost Opera (Krausas), Giovanna (Rigoletto) at Calgary Opera, Messiah with Caelis Ensemble, Isabella (The Italian Girl in Algiers) at the Rossini Opera Festival in Lunenburg, NS. Credits also include the title role in Ariodante, Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Giunone (La Calisto), and, as a soloist, works by Bach, Buxtehude, Debussy, and Respighi. After winning both the First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at Vancouver Opera’s VOX competition, Sarah was featured in the 2019 CBC article "30 hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30." That same year, she competed as a finalist in the COC Centre Stage Competition and received a Professional Development Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. She was the 2018 recipient of the Opéra Bouffe du Québec’s First Prize. Sarah grew up in Boucherville, QC. She’s an alumna of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist program, McGill’s Schulich School of Music, the University of Toronto.

Learn more: Revue L'Opéra ; CBC The Bridge ; Place à l'opéra