Mezzo-soprano
Marianne Crebassa made a major impact when she emerged on the international scene in the mid-2010s with performances of French opera and song.
Crebassa was born in Béziers in southern France on December 14, 1986. She lived in Agdé and Montpellier, studying at conservatories in both places. In Montpellier, she appeared in a Montpellier Opera performance of
Schumann's Manfred, and a concert performance at the Festival de Radio France of
Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights gained her wide attention. She has continued to perform at this festival even after achieving international popularity. In Montpellier, she studied voice, piano, and musicology; this well-rounded education and her early performances won her a place in the Young Artist Program of the Opéra National de Paris. That brought her stage experience in a wide variety of music: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice,
Mozart's La finta giardiniera, and
Berg's Lulu, among others.
After graduating in 2012,
Crebassa made an impressive splash: she appeared (as Irene) opposite
Plácido Domingo in
Handel's Tamerlano, and she returned the following year as Cecilio in
Mozart's Lucia Silla, a role in which she later made her debut at Italy's La Scala. In 2014, she created the title role in the new opera Charlotte Salomon by composer Marc-André Dalbavie.
Crebassa made top-level appearances in the U.S. with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (in 2015, in a program of French vocal works) and at the Chicago Lyric Opera (in 2016, as Stephano in
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette). Signed to the Erato label,
Crebassa released her debut album,
Oh Boy!, a collection of "pants role" arias, in 2016. She also portrayed Cherubino in
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at houses in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Vienna during this period.
Secrets, an album of French mélodies with high-profile pianist
Fazil Say as accompanist, followed in 2017. A busy 2017-2018 season for the singer included concerts conducted by
Daniel Barenboim to celebrate the
Debussy 2018 centenary, a recital in the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and a debut in the role of
Debussy's Mélisande, as well as returns to La Scala (as Irene) and to Chicago as Dorabella in
Mozart's Così fan tutte. Several of
Crebassa's performances have been released on DVD, including one of
Ravel's Shéhérazade in concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin in 2019. In 2021,
Crebassa returned on Erato with the album
Séguedilles, featuring little-known Spanish examples of the form as well as music by
Bizet. ~ James Manheim