Mezzo-Soprano, Melisa Bonetti, has been hailed by Opera Today as “a warm, supple mezzo that struck all the right impressions” and as “commanding a wonderful presence in the lower middle voice but also easily soaring heavenward with a well-schooled top.” Ms. Bonetti’s 2018-2019 operatic season includes Olga Olsen in Street Scene and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; both productions with Virginia Opera. “Melisa Bonetti as the peasant Zerlina is a standout, vocally and in her charismatic characterization.” -Richmond Times Melisa also continues to perform new works and is excited to be in Virginia Opera’s new Variation Series and featured as Johanna in Breaking, Autumn in Service Provider, and Eva in An American Dream. Melisa is excited to revisit the role of Tyler in Three Way with Shreveport Opera which she premiered with Nashville Opera. Melisa is also looking forward to revisiting the role of Mercedes, this time alongside Denyce Graves as Carmen, with the Richmond Symphony. Melisa’s engagements last summer prove her versatility as a singer including a dream role of hers from the musical theatre repertoire; Anita in Bernstein’s West Side Story with the Brott Music Festival (Ontario), a rock opera premiere; The Bradbury Tattoos with Concert: Nova (Ohio), her first Russian role of Marta in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta with Queen City Opera (Ohio), and her first and very anticipated time in Italy with the International Voice Masterclass Ebe Stignani program in Imola. Melisa will return to Italy this season to sing as a festival soloist in the Emilia Romagna Festival. Although her last name is Italian connecting her to some Sicilian ancestry, she is a first generation American from a Dominican family.

Recent performances include Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor with Virginia Opera, Die Knusperhexe in Hansel und Gretel with Union Avenue Opera (St. Louis), Mercedes in Carmen with Nashville Opera & Opera Columbus, Maria Maddalena in Galileo Galilei with Des Moines Metro Opera, Emilia in Otello with Dayton Opera, Flora in La Traviata with Kentucky Opera, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro with Kentucky Opera, Isabela in La Hija de Rappaccini with Des Moines Metro Opera, Federico Garcia Lorca in Ainadamar with the Lexington Philharmonic, and Maddalena in Rigoletto with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. Opera premieres include Tyler in Three Way with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects (NYC), Lilith in Dracula; Bloodlines with the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, Clare in A Woman in Morocco with Kentucky Opera, and Emelda in Champion (workshop) in collaboration with Cincinnati Opera.

Previous concert engagements include Das Knabe Wunderhorn selections with the Richmond Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with the Dayton Philharmonic & Cincinnati Collegium, Handel’s Messiah with the Dayton Philharmonic, a Naxos recording of Granados Tonadillos selections arranged for wind symphony and El Amor Brujo with the Queens Symphony Orchestra.