American mezzo-soprano Hope Nelson returns for a second year in the OperAvenir Studio at Theater Basel in Switzerland for the 2025/26 season.

Hope will debut the title role in La Cenerentola, as well as make debuts as Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Flora Bervoix in La Traviata, and Dama di Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She also performs in the opera-pasticcio Don Quijote with the Kammerorchester Basel.

In the 2024/25 season at Theater Basel, Hope made her house and role debut as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as returned to a favorite role, Fuchs in Janáček’s Das schlaue Füchslein. She also performed role debuts as Mercédès in Carmen, Annina in La Traviata, Rossweisse in Die Walküre, and Second Woman/Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas. She additionally jumped in to performances of Into the Woods as Cinderella and Die Dreigroschenoper as Lucy Brown.

Hope holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Artist Diploma ‘24, Master of Music ‘22), and the University of British Columbia (Bachelor of Music ‘20). She received additional training from the Music Academy of the West (‘24) and the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory (‘23, ‘22).

Notable roles in her repertoire include Sesto in La clemenza di Tito (SFCM), Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen (Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, Pocket Opera), Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (UBC Opera), Sesto in Giulio Cesare (SFCM), and Liza Elliott in Lady in the Dark (Chautauqua Opera Conservatory).

Hope’s passion for art song and interest in unconventional performance combined in her collaboration with Long Beach Opera for The Recital (2023), where she sang Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in an immersive new staging by Raviv Ullman and presented alongside the award-winning short film Christopher at Sea by Tom C.J. Brown.

This interest led to the creation of Kunst Traum, her co-directed recital with soprano Chea Kang. This hour-long, uninterrupted performance combines music, acting, and improvised movement. Drawing on surrealist influences, it aims to challenge and allow audiences to release their ideas of narrative.