Mezzo-soprano Béatrice Uria-Monzon was born on December 28, 1963, in Agen Lot-et-Garonne, France. She developed her love of the arts thanks to her father, Spanish painter Antonio Uria-Monzon. She switched her attention to singing when she performed in her high school choir. She studied at the Bordeaux Conservatoire and the Centre National d’Artistes Lyriques (CNIPAL) in Marseille. She also took musical training at the l’École d’Art Lyrique from the Paris National Opera. She made her debut as a lyric singer in 1987, appearing in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro two years later at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, France. Béatrice Uria-Monzon came to prominence in 1993 when she made her debut as the title role in Bizet’s Carmen at the Bastille Opera. She continued to portray Carmen throughout her career, most notably at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, the Chorégies d'Orange, the Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Béatrice Uria-Monzon also performed German and Italian repertoires alongside French. Her acclaimed catalog includes Fauré: Mélodies (1993), Bizet’s Carmen (1994), Toreador & Les Grands Airs de Carmen (1995), Duruflé: Sacred Choral & Organ Works, Vol. 1 & 2 (1995), Berlioz: Cantatas (2003), Lalo: Fiesque (2011), Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust (2012), and her first arias recital, Assoluta (2021). Beatrice Uria-Monzon died after a long illness on July 19, 2025, at the age of 61.
