Natalie Dessay

Natalie Dessay (born 19 April 1965) is a French soprano, best known as an opera singer before her retirement from opera stage in 2013.

In 1988, she won the first edition of competition "Voix Nouvelles", run by France Télécom and was granted a year's study at the "École d'art lyrique" of the Paris Opera, where she sang Elisa in Mozart's Il re pastore.

Dessay first met bass-baritone Laurent Naouri in 1989.

In 1990, she won first prize at the International Mozart Competition in Vienna.

In 1990, she sang Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro) at the Opéra de Marseille, Bettina (Don Procopio) at the Opéra-Comique, Néméa (Si j'étais roi) at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.

Since 1991, she worked with her private tutor, tenor Jean-Pierre Blivet.

In December 1991, she performed Adele (Die Fledermaus) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

She gained wide recognition after her portrayal of Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann in 1992, and then performing at leading stages, such as the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Since her earlier career she had been known in coloratura soprano roles in the German and French repertoire, such as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann, the title role in Lakmé, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute.

After two vocal surgeries she turned her focus to heavier bel canto roles, such as Amina in La sonnambula, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Marie in La fille du régiment, Violetta in La traviata, and further explored Baroque music with her collaborations with Emmanuelle Haïm.

Since retiring from opera stage, she has pursued a career in theatre and in concert, where she now performs, besides classical, genres such as jazz and chansons.

She has made dozens of recordings under the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics label, and then under Warner Classics/Erato Records.

In April 1992 she made her Paris Opera debut, singing the role of Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann with José van Dam.

The Roman Polanski production was not well received, but it began her road to stardom.

In 1993, she joined in the troupe of the Vienna State Opera as Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung.

In December, she was asked to replace Cheryl Studer, who was going to perform all main female roles, in Olympia in a production of Hoffmann.

After attending a performance where Barbara Bonney had sung Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier under Carlos Kleiber, she was cast in the same role with another conductor.

Besides Olympia, Blonde, Zerbinetta, her best known and most often played roles, she also performed Italian Singer (Capriccio), Aminta (Die schweigsame Frau), Fiakermilli (Arabella) with the company.

They married in August 1994, and she converted to his Jewish faith.

Dessay sang her first Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute at the 1994 Aix-en-Provence Festival in Robert Carsen's staging to critical acclaim.

She went on performing the role in productions at the Opéra National de Lyon, Salzburg Festival, Opéra Bastille, Vienna State Opera.

In October 1994, she made her New York Metropolitan Opera debut with Fiakermilli.

The couple have two children, Tom-Solal (b. 1995) and Neïma-Judith (b. 1998).

The family lives in La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire.

Dessay was quickly approached by a number of regional theatres, and engaged in roles such as Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos).

In 1995, she first performed the title role in Lakmé at the Opéra-Comique, and La Scala debut in The Tales of Hoffmann.

In 1996, she debuted in the role of Ophélie in Hamlet opposite Simon Keenlyside at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; the new production by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier revived in 2003 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Liceu with her in the same role.

In 1997 she sang the title role in Stravinsky's The Nightingale conducted by Pierre Boulez and staged by Stanislas Nordey at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

She returned to the Metropolitan Opera in September as Zerbinetta, and then returned to the Opéra de Lyon in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers.

In 1998 she portrayed Olympia at the Met, and later in the year in Lyon, performed Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Aspasia in Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto.

In 1999 she took on the role of Amina in La sonnambula at the Lausanne Opera.

She collaborated with William Christie in several projects: Carsen's new production of Handel's Alcina, which premiered at the Palais Garnier and later staged at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Andrei Serban's new production of Rameau's Les Indes galantes, which opened the new Paris Opera season.

Dessay was Olympia in Robert Carsen's new production of The Tales of Hoffmann, premiering on 22 March 2000, at the Opéra Bastille.

Since 2016 she has been recording under Sony Classical Records.

Nathalie Dessaix was born in Lyon, she was raised in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, where she had a few singing lessons with madame Saintrais, a former chorister at the Bordeaux Opera.

She dropped the silent "h" in her first name in honour of Natalie Wood when she was in grade school and subsequently simplified the spelling of her surname.

In her youth, she had intended to be a ballet dancer and then an actress.

After abandoning German, she began taking acting lessons with Gérard Laurent at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux.

At the age of 20, her vocal talent was discovered when playing a singing lutin, humming Pamina's aria in Molière's Le Sicilien ou l'Amour peintre, after which she was encouraged to take singing lessons.

After graduating with first prize, she joined the choir of the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.