Gaëlle Arquez Mezzo-soprano

Season 23/24 Artist

After earning a degree in musicology, Gaëlle Arquez was awarded the 2009 prize for voice at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. In 2011 she was named “Opera Revelation” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. 

She made her performance debuts at the Lille Opera (Prince Charming in Cendrillon); the Theater an der Wien (Idamante in Idomeneo); the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Mrs Meg Page in Falstaff). In 2016, she sang the title role of Carmen in Frankfurt and at the Royal Opera House in London.

She has appeared as Isolier (Le Comte Ory) at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Adalgisa (Norma), Mélisande (Pélléas et Mélisande) and Serse (Xerxes) in Frankfurt and she also sang the title role in Armide at the Vienna Staatsoper. Other notable performances include Medea (Handel’s Teseo) at the Theater an der Wien, and Carmen at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Gstaad. In 2019/2020, she appeared as the Muse and Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) at the Vienna Staatsoper and then made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino). 

She opened the 2020/2021 season performing the role of Charlotte (Werther) at the Frankfurt Opera and the Vienna Staatsoper. She has recently performed the title roles of La Belle Hélène and Giulio Cesare and Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Isabella (L'italiana in Algeri) in Milan, Circé at the Royal Opera in Versailles, Carmen at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

During the 23/24 season, she will perform the title-role of Fantasio at the Opéra-Comique, Angelina (La Cenerentola) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the title-role of Carmen as part of a European tour under the baton of René Jacobs, and Rossini's Stabat Mater in Ljubljana.

Gaëlle Arquez also performs in concert and has recorded her first CD, "Ardente Flamme", for Deutsche Grammophon in 2017.

At the Paris Opera: Don Giovanni (Zerlina), 2012, 2015 ; Falstaff (Mrs Meg Page), 2013 ; Le Couronnement de Poppée (Drusilla, La Fortuna), 2014 ; Les Contes d’Hoffmann (La Muse, Nicklausse), 2020 ; Alcina (Ruggiero), 2021 ; La Cenerentola (Angelina), 2022 ; Carmen (rôle-titre), 2022 ; Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira), 2023 ; Giulio Cesare (rôle-titre), 2024