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. 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. Since 2016 she has been recording under Sony Classical Records. Early and personal life 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. 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. In 1990, she won first prize at the International Mozart Competition in Vienna. Since 1991, she worked with her private tutor, tenor Jean-Pierre Blivet.