Opera Singer. A coloratura soprano, she had a long and honored career on both sides of the Atlantic. The child of a theatrical family, she trained initially in her native city, sang in local productions as Marie in Donizetti's "La fille du regiment" and as the title lead of Charles Gounod's "Mirelle", then later studied at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute with Elisabeth Schumann. Winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, she bowed at the Metropolitan on December 8, 1945, as Oscar from Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera". Pierrette remained in New York for three seasons then traveled to Paris' Opera-Comique where she made her 1949 debut as the title character of Leo Delibes' "Lakme". After performing in the French capital for a time she was to have a busy international career at major opera houses and festivals as well as on radio, often partnered with her husband tenor Leopold Simoneau; among her noted roles were both Barbarina and Susanna from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", Violetta of Verdi's "La Traviata" and the doomed Gilda from the same composer's "Rigoletto", the doll Olympia in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffman", both Constanze and Blonde of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio", and the tragic Juliette in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette". Pierrette last sang in public at a November 24, 1970, Montreal performance of Handel's "Messiah" then taught occasionally. In 1982 she and Simoneau moved west to Victoria where they founded a school called Opera Piccola, but unfortunately the venture went under in 1988 due to lack of funding. Pierrette received a 1960 Grande Prix du Disque for an album of Mozart arias recorded with Simoneau, was named Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 1967 with subsequent 1995 promotion to Companion (CC), was designated by France as Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1995, and in 1997 was honoured as Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec (QC). As her death a portion of her recorded legacy remained in print; her name was sometimes rendered Alarie-Simoneau.