Patricia Lynn Racette, an American operatic soprano, was born on June 23, 1965, in Manchester, New Hampshire. She began singing at age eight and initially studied vocal jazz at the University of North Texas before transitioning to opera. Her first professional operatic performance came in 1988 as Cio-Cio San in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the San Francisco Western Opera Theater. Racette made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1995 as Musetta in La bohème and has since been a regular performer there. She won the Richard Tucker Award in 1998. She also appeared on the Los Angeles Opera recording of The Ghosts of Versailles, which received a Grammy Award nomination.
