Leah Crocetto

Described by The New York Times as possessing an “agile coloratura technique and a feeling for the Italianate style… with warmth, full penetrating sound and tenderness,” American soprano Leah Crocetto continues to astonish audiences with her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines.

The 2022/23 season for Ms. Crocetto begins with her San Diego Symphony debut in Giuseppe Verdi’s breathtaking Requiem under the baton of Rafael Payare. She also returns to the Sydney Opera House for Opera Australia’s Aida and debuts the fiendish role of Odabella in Attila at Teatro Petruzelli. In recital, she will appear at the Butler School of Music in Austin, Texas, where she is currently on faculty as a Lecturer in Vocal Arts.

Leah Crocetto also tours with her newly founded trio Momenti, featuring bass-baritone Christian Pursell and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg for their first concerts in San Francisco, Napa, and her native Adrian, Michigan. Aiming to create unique and empowering music, performing genre-less, yet extensive, rich, and innovative repertoire, they will release their first EP in February 2023.

Ms. Crocetto’s 2021/22 season saw her make debuts with Toledo Opera as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Teatro Petruzzelli in the title role of Aida, and Washington Concert Opera as Anna from Rossini’s Maometto II. Additionally, she returned to Opera Australia where she reprised Leonora in Il trovatore at the Sydney Opera House and later joined the company in Melbourne for concert performances of Boito’s Mefistofele as Margherita. In concert, she performed at The Croswell in Adrian, Michigan, to celebrate the return of live performances, and sang a recital with her longtime collaborator, pianist Mark Markham, at the Lexington Bach Festival.

In the 2020/21 season, Leah made her highly anticipated debut at Opera Australia, starring as the title role in Davide Livermore’s thrilling production of Aida. Her portrayal was hailed as a “revelation,” with Stage Whispers praising that “nothing can truly prepare one to hear such stunning vocal control in person. A perfect, sudden pianissimo, deftly deployed in O, Patria mia!, was just one of the many moments that had the audience spellbound.” This season also marked the release of Deutsche Grammophon’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, featuring Ms. Crocetto as a soloist.

On the concert stage, Leah starred in Citizens of Song’s “Christmas From Afar” event featuring over 25 acts and up to 400 performers from around the world. She was the Featured Artist in Merola Opera Program’s “Un Gala in Maschera” virtual benefit concert honoring Sheri Greenawald. Ms. Crocetto also led multiple teaching residencies in the 2020/21 season: at the University of Texas – Austin, Siena Heights University, Potomac Vocal Institute, and Washington National Opera.

Very much at home in the Italian operatic repertoire of Verdi and Puccini, Leah Crocetto made her European debut as Leonora in Il trovatore with Opéra National de Bordeaux, followed by debuts at the Arena di Verona and North Carolina Opera. She sang her first performances in Venice as Desdemona in Otello at Teatro la Fenice. She reprised the role with the company on their tour of Japan, as well as with Frankfurt Opera for her company debut. She has debuted with the Israeli Opera as Luisa Miller, as Suor Angelica, and Liù in Turandot for San Francisco Opera, and sang her first performances as Anna in Rossini’s Maometto II with The Santa Fe Opera, in a new production by David Alden.

On the concert stage, Ms. Crocetto has sung Verdi’s Requiem with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, and also with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Columbus Symphony, and Albany Symphony. She sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in concert with San Francisco Opera and Nicola Luisotti, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” at the Grand Tetons Music Festival with Donald Runnicles. She returned to her hometown for a gala concert of opera and musical theatre with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra and was featured in a gala opera concert with the Toronto Symphony. She was presented in a Schwabacher Recital for the San Francisco Opera and sang Handel’s Messiah in Anchorage.

Career highlights include her title role debut as Aida, the title role of  ,Luisa Miller, Liù in Turandot and Mimì in La bohème with San Francisco Opera, Aïda and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites with Washington National Opera, Aida with Seattle Opera, her debut as Alice Ford in Falstaff and Leonora in Il trovatore with Oper Frankfurt, her role and house debut as Mimì in La bohème and Tosca with Pittsburgh Opera, her role debut as Eleonora in the first US performances of Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais with the Glimmerglass Festival, Desdemona in Otello and her role debut as the titular character in Rossini’s Semiramide with Opera National de Bordeaux, Anna in Maometto II with the Canadian Opera Company, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera, Desdemona in Otello with English National Opera, and Elisabetta di Valois in a new production of Don Carlo with Opera Philadelphia.

Leah Crocetto represented the United States at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, where she was a finalist in the Song Competition. She is a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the First Place Winner, People’s Choice and the Spanish Prize Winner of the José Iturbi International Music Competition, and winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition. A former Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera, Ms. Crocetto frequently appears with the company.

Ms. Crocetto holds degrees from Siena Heights University in acting performance and Moody Bible Institute in vocal studies. She was a participant in the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists Program, where she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro and La Rondine. She was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, where she performed scenes from Manon, Don Pasquale and sang the roles of two Verdi heroines, Luisa Miller and Leonora in Il trovatore on the Grand Finale Concert. Of this performance, San Francisco Chronicle said Crocetto has a “powerful Verdi voice and formidable precision technique, and intensity that amplifies an already huge voice, and an innate, irresistible musicality.” San Francisco Classical Voice said, “In thirty years of exciting discoveries, listening to each group of Merolini for the first time, I have never experienced a singer as complete and awesome as Crocetto.”