American soprano Patricia Racette made her San Diego Opera debut in 1995 as Mimì in La bohème, returned in 2001 as Love Simpson in Cold Sassy Tree (a role she created for the world premiere at Houston Grand Opera), and in 2004 for the title role of Katya Kabanova. Racette recently performed the role of Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at the Met, which was a part of The Met: Live in HD series broadcast in movie theatres worldwide. She has developed strong relationships, not only with the Metropolitan Opera, but also with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera and Santa Fe Opera. Seen regularly at these houses, her many roles include Violetta in La traviata, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème, Magda in La Rondine, the title role in Jenufa, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Desdemona in Otello, the title role of Katya Kabanova, Marguerite in Faust, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Micaela in Carmen, the title role in Luisa Miller, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell, Margherita in Boito’s Mefistofele, and Fosca in Passion among many others. Racette has also appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala in Milan, the Welsh National Opera, l'Opera National de Paris, the Saito Kinen Festival and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. A supporter of new works by today’s leading composers, she created the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere of An American Tragedy and, in July of this year, creates the role of Leslie Crosbie in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s The Letter with Santa Fe Opera.