Dominican-American Mezzo-Soprano, Melisa Bonetti, is a versatile singer whose experience encompasses a vast amount of new works and premieres, as well as large traditional operas and concert works. Exciting highlights this season include mezzo-soprano soloist at Carnegie Hall for the Bach Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with the Cecilia Chorus of NY, and four opera premieres (or premiere workshops); A Marvelous Order by Judd Greenstein and Tracy K. Smith, On the Road to Arivaca by Rosino Serrano and Susan Galbraith, Southern Crossings by Zaid Jabri, Yvette Christiansë & Rosalind Morris, and La Alcaldesa by Laura Jobin-Acosta and Sandra Flores-Strand. Having had the opportunity to create in new works has lead Melisa to sing in many genre-fusion productions- jazz-operas, rock-operas, latin-operas, pop-operas, hip-hop/classical fusion pieces, and more. Her passion lies in the diversity of mixing different musical influences and expanding whose stories are being told. Melisa has been hailed by Opera today as “a warm, supple mezzo that struck all the right impressions” and as “commanding a wonderful presence in the lower middle voice but also easily soaring heavenward with a well-schooled top.” Melisa is committed to the importance of equality and diversity within the artistic world, which she feels can strongly be served through connecting with the youth. She has dived into work as an educator in various musical outreach and community programs throughout the NYC area.

Previous seasons include Zerlina in Don Giovanni- "Melisa Bonetti as the peasant Zerlina is a standout, vocally and in her charismatic characterization," - Richmond Times, Olga Olsen in Street Scene, and in new works as Eva in An American Dream, Johanna in Breaking, and Autumn in Service Provider, all with Virginia Opera. Melisa revisited the role of Tyler in Three Way with Shreveport Opera which she premiered with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects, the latter being at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and sung in the Grammy nominated original cast recording. Melisa has also performed Anita in Bernstein's West Side Story with the Brott Music Festival in Ontario, a rock opera premiere; The Bradbury Tattoos with Concert: Nova, Marta in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta with Queen City Opera, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor with Virginia Opera, Die Knusperhexe in Hansel und Gretel with Union Avenue Opera, Mercedes in Carmen with Nashville Opera & Opera Columbus, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Queen City Opera. Opera premieres include Tyler in Three Way in a collaboration with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects, in Nashville and then at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, including the original cast album. Lilith in Dracula; Bloodlines with the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, Clare in A Woman in Morocco (premiere) with Kentucky Opera, and Emelda in Champion (workshop) in collaboration with Cincinnati Opera, Carmen cover with Nashville Opera, Delilah cover with Virginia Opera, Wowkle in Fanciulla del West with Virginia Opera and Kentucky Opera, Abuela in La Vida Breve with Cincinnati Chamber Opera, Maria Maddalena in Galileo Galilei with Des Moines Metro Opera, Emilia in Otello with Dayton Opera, Flora in La Traviata with Kentucky Opera & Shippensburg Festival, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro with Kentucky Opera concert tour, Isabela in La Hija de Rappaccini with Des Moines Metro Opera, Federico Garcia Lorca in Ainadamar with the Lexington Philharmonic, and Maddalena in Rigoletto with the Queens Symphony Orchestra.
Concert performances include Das Knabe Wunderhorn, selections with the Richmond Symphony, Mozart's Requiem and Handel's Messiah with the Dayton Philharmonic, El Amor Brujo with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, Naxos recording of a wind symphony arrangement of Granados Tonadillas, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 & Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Queens College Orchestra.
Ms.Bonetti completed her Master’s at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and her Bachelor's at Queens College's Aaron Copland School of Music in New York. She also attended the inaugural I Sing Beijing program now known as I SING!, the Wolf Trap studio artist program, and toured an arias concert in Bologna, Italy after being invited back from completing the International Voice Masterclass Ebe Stignani program.