Soprano Marlis Petersen makes her LA Opera debut as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (September 2010).

After her studies at the Academy of Music in Stuttgart and with Prof. Sylvia Geszty, Marlis Petersen was prize winner of various renown singing competitions. She attended a continuative education in opera and contemporary music as well as in the category dance.

As a company member of Städtische Bühnen Nuremberg she sang roles like Ännchen in Die Freischütz, Blonde in Die Entfühurung aus dem Serail, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the title role in Lulu and the Queen of the Night in Le Nozze di Figaro. Guest performances brought her to the opera houses of Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Munich, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. From the beginning of 1998 in 99 season, she was a member of Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. There, she debuted as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, followed by Marie in La Fille du Régiment, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Norina in Don Pasquale, The Cunning Little Vixen, Viola in Was ihr wollt (What you will) by Manfred Trojan, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Ophélie in Hamlet.

Marlis Petersen made her debut at Vienna State Opera as Lulu. She sang the same role successfully in Peter Konwitschny's production at State Opera Hamburg, in a new production in Athens and at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other career highlights include a sensational Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Bregenz Festival, the Nightingale in Die Vögel by Walter Braunfels in Geneva, Adele in Die Fledermaus at Bastille Opera Paris, Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, Elisa in Il Re Pastore at the Salzburg Festival, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at La Monnaie Brussels and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, Aphrodite in the world premiere of Henze's Phaedra in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt and at Vienna Festival, the world premiere of La Grande Magia in Dresden, Donna Clara in Der Zwerg and Thais in Athens, her debut at Munich State Opera with Zdenka in Arabella, Haydn's Orlando Paladino at the Berlin State Opera and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival.

Marlis Petersen's numerous concert activities include also an intensive collaboration with Helmuth Rilling and the International Bach Academy Stuttgart, with concerts in the USA and Europe, just as with René Jacobs. She also sang concerts with RAI Orchestra Torino (The Creation under Jeffrey Tate), Santa Cecilia Rome, Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Future projects include her role debut as Violetta in La Traviata in Graz, and guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera in the title role in the world premiere of Medea by Aribert Reimann, the Metropolitan Opera as Lulu and as Ophélie in Hamlet), Festival d'Aix-en-Provence as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Norina in Don Pasquale.