She was told her voice was more amenable to opera performance than jazz, which initially upset her. However, she eventually found that she really enjoyed opera and enthusiastically pursued a vocal studies major, studying with Pattye Johnstone. In her senior year she won first prize in the auditions for the Merola Opera Program, the training arm of the San Francisco Opera. Her first opera performance was at a community college in Fort Worth, Texas, in the title role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. After graduating from college, Racette made her professional opera debut in 1988 in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the San Francisco Western Opera Theater and traveled with the company for performances in New York City. Critic Bernard Holland said of her performance, "Patricia Racette was an especially compelling actress as Cio-Cio San, and it was acting achieved through music – just as opera performance should be. Yet Miss Racette has a soprano voice that, while musically and technically reliable, is never terribly luxurious in sound." She made her debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1989 as the voice of the priestess in Aida. She sang several more roles with the company while in the Merola program, including Alice Ford in Falstaff, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Sister Osmina in Suor Angelica, and Freia and Helmwige in The Ring Cycle. In 1991 she was made an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera, which led to several more performances at the SFO over the next two years, including Micaëla in Carmen, Dunyasha in War and Peace, the First Lady in The Magic Flute, and Mimì in La bohème. Career In 1992 Racette joined the roster of singers at the New York City Opera, making her debut with the company as Musetta in La bohème. She sang one more role with the company in the spring of 1993, Micaëla in Carmen. In March 1993 she made her Vancouver Opera debut as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Carmelites, and later that year she made her debut with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. She also continued her relationship with the San Francisco Opera, portraying Margherita in Mefistofele in 1994, and made her first European appearances that year at the Vienna State Opera and the Welsh National Opera. Although she received good reviews for these performances, it was not until she won the Marian Anderson