Camille Merckx
After earning a degree in musicology from the Sorbonne and a Higher Diploma from the Young Choir of Paris, Camille Merckx continued her training at the La Monnaie opera studio in Brussels, where she sang notably in Massenet's Garcia / Don Quixote conducted by Marc Minkowski and Puccini's Musico / Manon Lescaut conducted by Carlo Rizzi. She was subsequently invited to the Lausanne Opera (Rossini's Isaura/Tancredi and Massenet's Rosette/Manon), the Opéra-Comique (Destouches' La Folie/Le Carnaval et la Folie), the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Rihm's Jakob Lenz), the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia (Wagner's Flosshilde/Ring), the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maître), and the Lille Opera where she created the roles of The Queen/The Secretary/The Mistress of the House in Gérard Pesson's Three Tales. She also sang the roles of Monteverdi's Ottavia/L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Le Temps Suspendu festival, Purcell's Sorceress/Dido and Aenas at the Festival d'Automne in Paris, Offenbach's La Voix de la Mère/Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Belgium, the title role in Bizet's Carmen conducted by Alphonse Cemin, and Massenet's Dulcinée/Don Quichotte.
She has collaborated for several years with Le Balcon, thus affirming her interest in the contemporary repertoire. Directed by Maxime Pascal, they performed together in Fernando Fiszbein's Avenida de los Incas, in which she played Boulez's Alma, le Marteau sans Maître, as well as the role of Dryad in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.
With the Co[opéra]tive, she distinguished herself in the role of Marion in Othman Louati's Wings of Desire conducted by Fiona Mombet and Léo Margue at the Dijon, Nantes, and Rennes opera houses.
In a production by Jacques Osinski, she sang the contralto roles of the Minister/Narrator/Mother in George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill conducted by Alphonse Cemin at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, the Lille Opera, and the Théâtre de Caen. She was subsequently invited to reprise these roles in a production directed by Tim Murray at the Teatro del Canal/Teatro Real in Madrid, as well as at the Ravel Festival with the Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Pierre Bleuse.
In concert, she sings Vivaldi's Gloria with Julien Chauvin and the Concert de la Loge, Mozart's Requiem with Benjamin Levy and the Orchestre de Cannes, and Duruflé's Requiem accompanied by Vincent Warnier on the composer's organ at the Église Saint Étienne du Mont.
In recital, she performs in programs of French songs at Flagey in Belgium and at the Petit Palais in Paris. She sings Brahms's Zwei Gesänge at La Monnaie, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Maxime Pascal at the Nouveau Siècle in Lille; a work she performs in Schönberg's chamber version at the Maribor Festival in Slovenia. As part of the Lundis Musicaux (Musical Mondays), she performs Zdeka, the gypsy in Janáček's Diary of a Disappeared Man alongside Petr Nekoranec and Alphonse Cemin.
At the same time, in recent years, she has been learning the viola da gamba, dancing the tango, and writing the first show for her new company, Les Perles de verre. Based on the life and repertoire of Mademoiselle de Maupin, a singer at the Paris Opera in the late 17th century and a great fencer, this show will tour during the 2025-2026 season, notably at the Rennes Opera and the Cité de la Voix biennial, "Elles chantent, composent, dirigent."