Melissa Sondhi
Praised for her “charm” (San Francisco Chronicle-Datebook), for “time and again sing(ing) with a voice that is nothing short of wowing” and “delicate and golden” (Theatre Eddys), her “shimmering, agile soprano” and “remarkable dynamic range” (Operaville), for her “warm and evocative” voice (Cordell Reports), and her “effortless performance” (Opera Tattler), Indian-American soprano Melissa Sondhi is an opera singer on the rise.
In the 2024-2025 season, Melissa will be returning to Opera San José for her second season as the inaugural Wadhwani Resident Artist, debuting the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and singing the role of Musetta in La bohème. In the 2023-2024 season, Melissa was the first ever inaugural Wadhwani Resident Artist, debuting the roles of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Gilda in Rigoletto, and covering the role of Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas. She also sang the role of Musetta in La bohème with Pocket Opera and Cinnabar Theater. In the 2022-2023 season,
she made her San Francisco Opera Guild debut singing the role of Musetta in La Bohème, and returned to Opera San José to sing the role of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. She covered the roles of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Nannetta in Falstaff as well. She also returned to Pocket Opera to sing the role of Adele in their production of Die Fledermaus. In the 2021-2022 season, Melissa sang the role of Iza in The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein with Pocket Opera, and also made her principle role debut with Opera San Jose singing First Witch in Dido and Aeneas. In the 2020-2021 season, she sang the role of Angelina in Lyric Theatre of San José’s production of Trial by Jury. In the 2019-2020 season, she covered the roles of Ida in Opera San Jose’s productions of Die Fledermaus and the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel. She also performed the roles of Le feu and Le rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges with Air Opera Collective. In the 2018-2019 season, she was seen as Giannetta in The Elixir of Love with Pocket Opera, Edith in The Pirates of Penzance, and Fiametta in The Gondoliers with Lamplighters Music Theatre.
In 2023, Melissa won first place in the Adult Classical Voice category at the Los Angeles Semifinals of the Music International Grand Prix competition. In 2021, Melissa was a semifinalist in the Orpheus Vocal Competition, and in 2017, she was a finalist at the East Bay Opera League’s Young Artists Scholarship Awards Competition.
Other role engagements have included the title role of Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, La princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Parasha in Mavra, Maria Bertram in the West Coast premiere of Mansfield Park, and Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking. Melissa holds a BM from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (2015), and an MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2017).
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