Praised as “sizzling,” “riveting and passionate” and possessing a voice of “warm, organic liquidity,” mezzo-soprano Sarah Larsen looks forward to returning to The Metropolitan Opera for their 2022/23 season as the 2nd Ancella in Medea. She makes her debut with Houston Grand Opera this spring, creating the role of Cassandra Smith in the world premiere of Another City - Jeremy Howard Beck & Stephanie Fleischmann’s new work, which centers the stories of people experiencing homelessness. Other upcoming engagements include her return to Seattle Opera  for Flora Bervoix in La traviata, Bernstein’s Songfest with the Seattle Symphony, concerts with the Thirty Three Forty Recital Series and a reunion with Maestro Clinton Smith for Handel’s Messiah in Atlanta

In the 2021-22 season, Ms. Larsen joined The Metropolitan Opera as the Zweite Dame for their holiday presentation of Die Zauberflöte. She then toured with Austin Opera, The Atlanta Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Laurene Powell Jobs in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Concert appearances included Mozart’s Requiem with The Florida Orchestra, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Charlotte Symphony, and appearances with Music of Remembrance and St. Croix Valley Opera.

Since making her debut at The Metropolitan Opera in 2017 as Käthchen in Werther, Ms. Larsen has also been featured onstage as the Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Flora Bervoix in La traviata and the 2nd Esquire in Parsifal. She also joined the company in recent seasons for their productions of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Le nozze di Figaro, The Merry Widow, Rusalka, Cendrillon, and Les contes d’Hoffmann. 

Other recent engagements have included Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Virginia Opera and Arizona Opera, Jan Arnold in Everest with Calgary Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City,  Dorabella in Così fan tutte for Mill City Summer Opera, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Des Moines Metro Opera, Mercédès in Carmen with The Santa Fe Opera, and her debut with The Tanglewood Festival and The Ravinia Festival as Paquette in Candide. Ms. Larsen also made her Italian debut in a staging of Vivaldi’s La Gloria e Imeneo with the famed I Solisti Veneti.

An alumna of the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, Ms. Larsen enjoys a long relationship with the company. She has been featured as the Stewardess in Flight, the Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Maddalena in Rigoletto and the Secretary in The Consul, among others. In 2015 and 2016, Ms. Larsen was in residence as a Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where she performed Bianca in Rape of Lucretia and Susanna in The Ghosts of Versailles. Previously with Wolf Trap, she created and recorded the role of Sarelda in John Musto and Mark Campbell’s comic opera The Inspector.

Other engagements include Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with The Berkshire Opera Festival, Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette with Des Moines Metro Opera, and Neris in Medea with The Glimmerglass Festival. On the concert stage, she has been heard in performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass and St John Passion, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Handel’s Messiah, and Duruflé’s Requiem.

March 2013 marked her debut with the New York Festival of Song with Song of the Midnight Sun, a concert celebrating Scandinavian art song.  Additionally, Ms. Larsen, along with Caitlyn Lynch and Morgan Smith, created the song cycle Farewell, Auschwitz, by Jake Heggie and Gene Sheer with Music of Remembrance, which was recorded by Naxos.

Ms. Larsen is from Roseville, MN and is a graduate of Simpson College and Rice University. She continued her training with residencies at the Aspen Opera Theater Center, Sarasota Opera, Virginia Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, The Santa Fe Opera and Seattle Opera. Ms. Larsen is the recipient of awards and career grants from 4Culture, The Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Seattle Opera Guild, Houston Grand Opera and The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She currently resides in Seattle, WA.