Elsa Benoit received singing and piano lessons at an early age and made her first steps on stage as a member of the Rennes and Angers-Nantes opera choir, while studying musicology. Subsequently, she graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory with a Bachelor of Music. From 2011 to 2013, she studied at the Netherlands National Opera Academy, where she received her Master's degree in Opera with distinction. In November 2012, she won three prizes at the Symphonies d'Automne International Singing Competition, and in March 2013 the BraneCantenac Award at the MACM International Singing Competition. After two years at the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera, the doors to her singing career opened: during her engagement at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, she was celebrated, among others, as Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and as Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, as well as for her Micaëla in Carmen (for which she received the Austrian Music Theatre Prize) and as Despina in Cosí fan tutte. From 2016 to 2021, the soprano was part of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera and portrayed roles such as the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Frasquita in Carmen, Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Musetta in La Bohème, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Emilie in Rameau's Les Indes galantes (directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, conducted by Ivor Bolton). She has been freelancing since 2021. Last season, she appeared in of Philippe Hersant's Les Eclairs at the Ópera Comique and of Handel's Alcina (Morgana) at the Palais Garnier in Paris, of Carmen (Micaela) in Toulouse, of The Rake's Progress (Anne Trulove) in Nantes, Handel's Agrippina (Poppea) in Munich, and Poulenc's Les Mamélles de Tiresias (Thérèse) at Glyndebourne. In the 2022/2023 season, the artist's main operatic focus will be on the title role in Handel's Semele in Barrie Kosky's production, both in Lille and in Berlin (Komische Oper), conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm. In Versailles she will be Poppea in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea under the musical direction of Leonardo García Alarcón. Elsa Benoit is also in great demand as a concert singer. Her performances this season include Brahms’ Requiem together with Christian Gerhaher and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Choir, conducted by Hansjörg Albrecht in Hamburg, Christmas concerts with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under by Pietari Inkinen, concert performances of Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Bellezza) with the Berlin Philharmonic and Emmanuelle Haïm in Berlin and Baden-Baden, French repertoire with the hr Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alain Altinoglu in Frankfurt and Berlin, and Haydn's Seasons under Hans-Christoph Rademann in Stuttgart.
As of January 2023
