Natalie Dessay

Born in Lyon in 1965 and trained at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, Natalie Dessay emerged in the late 1980s after the Voix Nouvelles competition and the Mozart competition in Vienna. Initially associated with the coloratura soprano repertoire, she made her mark with virtuosic roles by Mozart, Strauss, Offenbach and Delibes before distinguishing herself on stages such as the Opéra de Paris, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and La Scala. Her Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and her portrayals of the Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta, Lakmé and Ophelia established a highly theatrical approach to singing, attentive to text and stage. After two vocal cord surgeries in 2002 and 2004, Dessay shifted her repertoire toward bel canto and more lyrical roles like Lucia, Amina, Marie in La Fille du régiment, Manon, Violetta and Mélisande, while developing a baroque facet in collaboration with Emmanuelle Haïm and William Christie. She left the operatic stage in 2013 after Manon in Toulouse and turned to theatre and concert performance, where she also explored chanson and jazz. Her discography includes Entre elle et lui with Michel Legrand (2013), Pictures of America (2016) and Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (2017).