Samantha W. Petersen

Praised for her “action-star sass” (Boston Globe), Samantha W. Petersen has a mezzo voice all her own.  With degrees from Stetson University and the New England Conservatory, she has enjoyed performing in a variety of productions.  During her time at Stetson, she was seen onstage as Woman 2 in Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World and Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.  She also found a love for Gilbert & Sullivan as she performed first Ruth in Pirates of Penzance and then Katisha in The Mikado with the Sands Theater Center.  At NEC, she performed Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium, Madame de la Haltiere in Massenet’s Cendrillon, The Witch in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and The Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.  In the summer of 2010, Samantha made her international debut in Rome with Operafestival di Roma, singing La Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.  

With her schooling complete in 2011, she joined the chorus of the Boston Lyric Opera, where she remained a chorister for three seasons, taking part in Macbeth, Madama Butterfly and Der fliegende Holländer.  She also had the pleasure of working as a young artist with Sarasota Opera from 2012-2013, where she sang numerous opera chorus roles (Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Otello, and Turandot, to name a few) and became well-versed in popular opera scenes.  With Sarasota Opera in October 2013, she had great fun singing Miss Baggott in Benjamin Britten’s The Little Sweep.  The following Winter, (newly married), she headed back to Boston to sing Giovanna in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the Boston Lyric Opera.  

She made her debut with Passaggio Oper (then The Berlin Opera Group) in their production of Don Giovanni in 2017.