Michelle Mariposa is an award winning Filipino-Chinese mezzo-soprano, praised for her “plummy tone, easy resonance, and effortless carrying power” (The New York Times), “quicksilver coloratura, attention to detail, and spellbinding dramatic energy.” (The Washington Post) She is a Grand Finals Winner of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the first prize winner of the 2026 Washington International Voice Competition and a 2023 Sullivan Award Winner of the Sullivan Foundation. Michelle was most recently a Cafritz Young Artist with the Washington National Opera (WNO). 

 

Michelle opens her 2026-2027 season with Huang Ruo’s The Rift at the Carnegie Hall with the Bard East/West Ensemble and China Now Chamber Orchestra. Following, she looks forward to going back to the Washington National Opera as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. Michelle then makes her Seattle Opera debut as the 2nd Frida Image in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego by Pulitzer-prize winning composer and playwright, Gabriel Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz, and her Opera Lafayette debut in The Impostor Unmasked, a musical masquerade featuring works from Dowland to Purcell to Early Handel. In the spring, Michelle makes her highly anticipated debut as Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis.

 

Michelle recently made her Glimmerglass Festival debut as Suzuki and as Dorabella in Così fan tutte. She also made her debut with the Manila Symphony Orchestra, where she sang the title role in a concert performance of Carmen excerpts to rave reviews, as well as beloved Filipino art songs.  

 

Additional roles and engagements in the 2025-2026 season have included Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) with the Washington Opera Society, Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), The Fox and the Rose (The Little Prince), Rebecca Nurse (The Crucible), Sophie (Mickey Dee and the Eclipse - World premiere), and the Consultant (The Curse of the Magi - World premiere) all with the Washington National Opera. 

 

Recently, Michelle also made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, as the Monitress in Suor Angelica and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, where she was hailed as “the evening’s most jaw-dropping instrument.” (The New York Times) Michelle was also one of the featured soloists in Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor and Solemn Vespers with the Bellingham Chamber Chorale.