At the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn (TOBS) in Switzerland, French mezzo Julia Deit-Ferrand sings Laissez durer la nuit, an opera she devised, combining Baroque, traditional Mediterranean, and electronic music. She continues her collaboration with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, notably within the ‘La Plage’ projects, in particular with Mezzo vs Soprano, a show she has designed with soprano Lysa Menu.
Earlier in the season, she made her role debut as Kitchen Boy Rusalka at the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg (NOF) in Switzerland, followed by the Triceratops Les Dinos et l'Arche (a modern Baroque pasticcio about Darwin) at La Cité Bleue in Geneva, after having achieved great success last year in the title role of Philippe Boesmans’ Julie at Culturgest in Lisbon; she is also currently collaborating with the Opéra National de Nancy-Lorraine on an innovative format aimed at young audiences, Carrousel, based on Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann.
Future plans include Flora The Enchanted Pig (Jonathan Dove) at the operas of Lausanne and Genève.
Other recent performances include debut at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg in Simon Steen-Andersen's Don Giovanni's Inferno (world premiere) and a reprise as Bianca Rosa and Bianca, a young audience production based on Donizetti, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. She has also sung Dorothée Cendrillon (Massenet) at the Opéra de Lausanne, the title role Lotario (Handel) in Payerne, Switzerland and, at the TOBS, Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro and Thérèse in the world premiere of Daniel Andres's Derborence, as well as Mercédès Carmen at the Theater Magdeburg.
Other roles include the Mezzo in Péter Eötvös's Der goldene Drache at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Brigitte in Auber's Le Domino Noir at the Opéra de Lausanne, and both Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro and Berta Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the NOF.
Julia does not limit herself purely to operatic repertoire: in music theatre, she has played Sally Bowles Cabaret, Fantine Les Misérables and Hattie in Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate. She also has a strong interest in multi-genre and performative art forms, and practices sassy, a dancing style born from urban dance (hip hop, voguing, krump), with Lausanne-based choreographer Daya Jones.
She has performed at the Arsenic, a contemporary performing arts centre in Lausanne, in Louis Bonard's L'Apocalypse, at the Théâtre Saint-Gervais in Geneva, in a contemporary opera creation at the Belluard Bollwerk Festival in Fribourg, and at the Tête à Tête Festival in London. She has also created a project for voice and synthesizers based on traditional Turkish and Greek songs and Baroque music, which she has performed at the Swiss Museum & Centre for Electronic Music Instruments, the NOF, the BCV Concert Hall and the Indemini Festival.
Julia holds a Masters in Sociology from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) and a Masters in solo music from the Haute École de Musique de under Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet.