Heidi Melton, acclaimed for her “big gleaming soprano” (The New York Times) and hailed by La Presse as “the Wagnerian voice we have been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson,” has established herself as one of the leading dramatic sopranos of her generation. Renowned for her interpretations of Wagner, Strauss, and other late Romantic repertoire, she is a frequent guest at the world’s foremost opera houses and concert halls.
Ms. Melton has appeared with many of the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras, including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Opernhaus Zürich, Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Bayreuther Festspiele, Seattle Opera, Teatro La Fenice, Vienna Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Her distinguished roster of collaborators includes conductors Valery Gergiev, Sir Simon Rattle, Fabio Luisi, Sir Donald Runnicles, Alan Gilbert, Jaap van Zweden, Kirill Petrenko, Zubin Mehta, Karina Canellakis, Eun Sun Kim, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kent Nagano, Marin Alsop, James Gaffigan, Markus Stenz, Robert Spano, and Patrick Summers.
A sought-after interpreter of the great Wagnerian heroines, Melton’s repertoire includes Tristan und Isolde (Isolde), Die Walküre (Sieglinde; Brünnhilde), Siegfried (Brünnhilde), Götterdämmerung (Brünnhilde), Der fliegende Holländer (Senta), Tannhäuser (Elisabeth; Venus), and Lohengrin (Elsa). Beyond Wagner, she has appeared in Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne), Un ballo in maschera (Amelia), Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza), Le Grand Macabre (Mescalina), and Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud), among others.
Notable career highlights include her Vienna Philharmonic debut performing the Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung under Valery Gergiev at the Musikverein and Carnegie Hall; her Berliner Philharmoniker debut in Le Grand Macabre (Mescalina) under Sir Simon Rattle; her Bayreuth Festival debut in Die Walküre (Sieglinde); a BBC Proms appearance in Tannhäuser (Elisabeth) with Donald Runnicles; and Tristan und Isolde (Isolde) with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.
Melton’s discography includes Tristan und Isolde (Isolde) with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Die Walküre (Sieglinde) and Siegfried (Brünnhilde) with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden on Naxos, and The Metropolitan Opera’s commercially released Ring cycle conducted by Fabio Luisi.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, Melton is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Sara Tucker Award, and the Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition.
2026-2027
