Marina Viotti

Marina Viotti (born 30 April 1986) is a Swiss-French mezzo-soprano opera singer.

Early life Marina Viotti was born on 30 April 1986, in Lausanne, in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. A dual French-Swiss national, she is the daughter of Swiss conductor Marcello Viotti and French violinist Marie-Laurence Geneviève Jacqueline Bret, and the sister of conductor Lorenzo Viotti. She has a younger brother, Alessandro, a horn player at the Lyon Opera in France, and a younger sister, Milena, also a horn player at the Munich Opera in Germany.

Her father's international professional obligations did not prevent her from staying by his side during this time. Viotti saw herself as an opera singer from the age of five because she was already used to listening to singing through her parents' work. where she attended primary and middle school, then Jean-Moulin High School Viotti attended the Forbach Conservatory,

Viotti also practised various sports, including horse riding, which she described as "at a fairly high level", as well as football, rugby and volleyball. She said, "my real passion was horse riding", while she continued with music up to the "professional level".

Lost Legacy and Lyon When she was a teenager, she attended an After Forever concert, led by Floor Jansen, which enchanted her, after being invited by a horn-playing friend from the conservatory who played in a metal band. the practice for the final exams. At the age of 18, She then turned to the study of literature

The Belfort-based French metal band Soulmaker, searching for its identity and struggling with vocals, had begun touring in 2002. Viotti volunteered at the Hellfest music festival and performed with her metal band in Europe on weekends. She decided to drop out of Kedge. Viotti later told Marie-Eve Barbier of La Provence: "I was between two lives ... I climbed the ranks in metal, and at the same time, it was in Marseille that I discovered my operatic voice and switched in this world."

Following this, Viotti joined the Gustav Mahler and Wiener Singverein choirs, then went to the Vienna Opera to join the extra chorus. In Rossini's , she made her first soloist appearance, followed by performances in Turin and Milan, Italy, where she sang the role of in .

During her solo career, Viotti was engaged by the opera houses of Munich, Lausanne and Zurich, as well as the Lucerne Theatre in Switzerland. In 2015, she won the Belcanto International Prize at the Rossini Opera Festival in Wildbad, Germany, and, the following year, was awarded Third Prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in Switzerland. She has also received several scholarships, including the Leenaards Scholarship in 2016.

In 2017, she was preparing for her first title role, , in at the Lucerne Opera, and she also performed in Germany, Barcelona, Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Strasbourg, France. In 2018, she was named a finalist in the Operalia Competition, and in 2019, was named Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards.

She honed her technique during the coronavirus pandemic.

By 2021, Viotti had performed in 's opera and was then offered principal roles in major opera houses.

In 2023, Viotti won the in France in the category of "Lyrical Artist of the Year". She performed on the second day of the 36th edition of , a classical music festival in Royan, France, in July 2023. In September 2023, Viotti performed at the Dresden Opera in Germany. From 9 to 19 October 2023, she performed in Rossini's , directed by and presented at the . Viotti had the role of Carmen for a series of twelve performances of the four-act comic opera from 7 April to 17 June 2024 at the Zurich Opera, accompanied by the Philharmonia Zurich. performing "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)", a metal adaptation of the French Revolution song "", but with the additional incorporation of an excerpt from "". While Gojira performed on the of the , Viotti appeared singing on board a boat in reference to the motto of the city of Paris, "" (; ). of Le Temps described the performance as a "metalo-lyrical tidal wave". As part of the final celebration of the Olympic Games, the collaborative performance was projected onto the in Paris on the night of 14 September 2024, while Viotti stood before the monument to reprise her part.

On 2 February 2025, Viotti won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)", a collaboration with Gojira and Victor Le Masne, at the 67th ceremony in Los Angeles, United States. She is the first woman to win an award in this category since its inception. She made the round trip in 48 hours between Barcelona, where she was performing, and Los Angeles to attend the ceremony with Gojira and Le Masne.

At the opening ceremony of Paris Saint-Germain FC's football match against AJ Auxerre on the 34th day of Ligue 1 at the Parc des Princes in May 2025, Viotti sang , an "hybrid" song composed for the event by Parisian DJ . On 5 July 2025, Viotti appeared with Gojira at the Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath tribute concert, Back to the Beginning, performing "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)", which took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom. In 2025, she performed as Charlotte in Massenet's Werther and Octavian in ' , both at the in Paris. She continued to perform during a busy season, reprising the title role of Carmen at the Dallas Opera, and the role of Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. also known as a , or "lyrical singer", has a mezzo-soprano voice type.

Todd Camburn, pianist at the Lausanne Conservatory, commented that by studying technique with , Viotti made her "vocal breakthrough". Suffering from a tumour in her thorax, she faced an uncertain prognosis as to whether she would ever be able to sing again, with the possibility of dying. She had not wanted to reveal her cancer to La Scala in Milan and had concealed her disease, for fear of discouraging her employer. Mezzo Mozart (2024) Melankhôlia: In Darkness Through the Light (2024)

Written works