Denyce Graves has announced she will retire from the stage on Jan. 24, 2026.

The mezzo will take her last bow during the Metropolitan Opera’s run of “Porgy and Bess” and she will sing the role of Maria.

Graves made her Met debut in 1995 and went on to sing 158 times with the company in such productions as  Kevin Puts’s “The Hours,”Britten’s “Peter Grimes,” Nico Muhly’s “Marnie,”Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress.” Most famously she sang Carmen and Saint-Saëns’s “Samson et Dalila” to great acclaim. 

She has also performed to great acclaim at the Washington National Opera.

Following retirement from singing, Graves will continue to shape the operatic world through her work as a stage director and through her educational and advocacy initiative, the Denyce Graves Foundation—which champions equity and inclusion in the arts.

“Porgy and Bess” opens on Dec. 2, 2026.