Biography

French soprano Clarisse Planchais, originally from Brittany, is currently studying at the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam, where she works with Hanneke de Wit.

She previously studied at the Prince Claus Conservatorium in Groningen with Hanneke de Wit, and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris with Valérie Guillorit. She also holds a Diplôme d’études musicales with honours from the Conservatoire de Cergy-Pontoise, where she studied with Jean-François Rouchon.

Her recent stage experience includes The Nymph in Wenzelberg’s Nighttown and Serpina in Pergolesi’s La serva padrona with the Dutch National Opera Academy. She has also appeared as a chorus singer in Alexander Raskatov’s Animal Farm at Dutch National Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper. Other roles include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Luthers Bach Ensemble, First Conversa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the Nootstroom Orchestra, and La Chouette and La Bergère in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Théâtre Équestre de Bretagne.

Her concert repertoire includes French mélodie, Baroque music and orchestral repertoire. In 2023, she gave a French Baroque recital with the Noordelijk Barokensemble, and in 2025 performed five mélodies by Henri Duparc with orchestra at De Oosterpoort in Groningen and De Harmonie in Leeuwarden.

Her operatic repertoire includes Flaminia (Il mondo della luna), Thérèse / La Cartomancienne (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Ilia (Idomeneo), and Dido (Dido and Aeneas).

Her artistic development has been shaped by masterclasses and academies with artists including Patricia Petibon, Ruggero Raimondi, Maarten Koningsberger, Paul McNamara and Elisabeth Scholl. She also participated in the International Lied Festival Zeist, where she worked with Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside.

Clarisse is a recipient of the Miluska Duffková Scholarship and has received two awards at the International Opera Competition Raymond Duffaut in Avignon: the Young Hope Prize and the Prize of the French Centre for Lyrical Promotion. She was also a finalist in the Grachtenfestival Competition.