Background

Recently married, Suzanne Ribet was most recently seen with Melbourne City Opera in our production last year of Lucia di Lammermoor, and also appeared in our concert version and Australian premier production of Verdi’s II Corsaro in the role of Gulnara. For MCO she has also performed in The Merry Widow in the title role, in La Traviata in the role of Violetta, and in The Marriage of Figaro in the role of The Countess. She previously had also appeared with MCO in Carmen in the dual, alternating roles of Frasquita and Micaela, in her first Australian production after almost 7 years of being based in New York.

She appeared last year with Melbourne Opera in their production of Madame Butterfly in the title role and also as Santuzza in Cavellaria Rusticana.

During her time in New York she was invited back to Australia to sing the role of Nedda in I Pagliacci with Opera Queensland in 2002.

She made her US debut in the role of Constanza in The Abduction from the Seraglio with Bronx Opera, and was re-engaged by that company to sing the role of Birdie in Marc Blitzstein’s Regina. She performed in Carmen with Tulsa Opera, singing the role of Frasquita, and with this same company sang Pousette in Massenet’s Manon in a production by Fabrizio Melano.

Over the years she has had much success in singing competitions, including appearing as an Eastern Region finalist in the US NATS Artist Award competition in Montreal. She was also a finalist in the inaugural Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Study Award. Suzanne was awarded the Geelong Aria Award in 2000, and in that same year was given an Opus 50 Charitable Trust Scholarship Award.

After singing for a season in the Melbourne chorus of Opera Australia, and with the assistance of a study grant from this company, Suzanne moved to New York in 1997 to complete her Master’s in Music Performance at Brooklyn College. Whilst completing her degree she performed the title role in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, and sang Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte. Other Mozart heroines in her repertoire include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Madame Goldentrill in The Impresario.

Suzanne performed regularly on the concert platform with Bronx Opera, and appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of the Bronx in Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Other solo Oratorio engagements have included J.S. Bach's Magnificat and St. John Passion, Handel's Elijah and, The Messiah, C.P.E. Bach's Magnificat, and Schubert's Mass in G Major. In January 2004 she was granted a scholarship to study German language at the Goethe Institute in Germany, and whilst in Bonn, gave a Lieder program recital.