Natalie Dessay

Natalie Dessay, Montpellier, 2008

Natalie Dessay (born Nathalie Dessaix, 19 April 1965, in Lyon) is a French coloratura soprano. She dropped the silent "h" in her first name in honor of Natalie Wood when she was in grade school and subsequently simplified the spelling of her surname outside France. Famous in her earlier career for a very high upper extension, limpid intonation and superb coloratura, Dessay became more recognized in recent years for her dramatic and comedic flair as a singing actress.

In her youth, Dessay had intended to be a ballet dancer, and then an actress.^[1] She discovered her talent for singing whilst taking acting classes, and shifted her artistic focus to music.^[2] Dessay was encouraged to study voice at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and gained experience as a chorister in Toulouse. At the competition Les Voix Nouvelles, run by France Télécom, she was awarded First Prize (Premier Prix de Concours) followed by a year's study at Paris Opera's Ecole d'Art Lyrique, where she sang "Elisa" in Mozart's Il re pastore. Also, she entered the International Mozart Competition at the Vienna State Opera, winning First Prize.

She was quickly approached by a number of theatres, and subsequently sang "Blondchen", "Madame Herz" (in Der Schauspieldirektor), "Zerbinetta" and "Zaïde" at the Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Bastille, as well as "Adele" in Die Fledermaus in Geneva.

Career

In April and May 1992 at the Opéra Bastille, she sang the role of "Olympia" in The Tales of Hoffmann with José van Dam. The Roman Polanski production was not well received, but it began the road to stardom for Dessay. Although she was soon featured in another production of Hoffmann, it would be over ten years before her return to Paris Opera in the same role. Soon after her Hoffmann run, Dessay joined the Vienna State Opera as Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In December 1993, she was then asked to replace Cheryl Studer in one of the three female roles in a production of Hoffmann at the Vienna Opera. Her "Olympia" received acclaim from the Viennese audiences and praise from Plácido Domingo.^{[citation needed]}

She attended a performance where Barbara Bonney had sung Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier under Carlos Kleiber. Dessay was cast in the same role with another conductor. Her hope was to work with Kleiber, but he died before any project came to fruition.^{[citation needed]} Blondchen in Die Entführung and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos became her best-known and most often played roles.

In October 1994, Dessay made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in the role of Fiakermilli in Strauss's Arabella, and returned there in September 1997 as Zerbinetta and in February 1998 as Olympia.

The Staatsoper approached Dessay with two operas: Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau, and Alban Berg's unfinished Lulu. Dessay declined the latter, saying the score was too difficult for her^{[citation needed]}. She admitted that Die schweigsame Frau was already painful to learn.

At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, Dessay first performed the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Although she was hesitant to perform the role, saying that she didn't want to play any evil characters, director Robert Carsen convinced her that this Queen would be different, almost a sister to Pamina. Dessay agreed to do the role, claiming it would be a one-time series of performances. There followed a year-long series of final performances of the Queen of the Night.^{[citation needed]}

During the 2001–2002 season in Vienna, she began to experience vocal difficulties and had to be replaced in almost all of the performances of La sonnambula. Subsequently, she was forced to cancel several other performances, including a French version of Lucia di Lammermoor in Lyon and a Zerbinetta at the Royal Opera House in London. She withdrew from the stage and underwent surgery on one of her vocal cords in July 2002.^[3] In February 2003, she returned to live performances in a Paris concert. Later, she cancelled and had further surgery, but by mid-2005 she was back on stage.

In the summer of 2003, Dessay gave her first US recital in Santa Fe. She was so attracted to New Mexico in general, and to Santa Fe in particular, that Santa Fe Opera (SFO) quickly rearranged its schedule to feature her in SFO's 2004 production of La sonnambula.^[4][5] She returned in the 2006 SFO season as Pamina (The Magic Flute). She gave her first performances in the role of Violetta in La traviata^[1] at SFO on 3 July 2009 in a production staged by Laurent Pelly. Her husband, Laurent Naouri appeared as Germont.^[6]

The 2006/2007 season schedule included Lucia di Lammermoor and La sonnambula in Paris, La fille du régiment directed by Laurent Pelly in London and Vienna, and a Manon in Barcelona. She opened the 2007–08 season at the Met as Lucia and also repeated her role in La fille du régiment.^[7] In January 2009 she sang the part of Melisande in a much acclaimed stagione production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy at the Theater an der Wien, the second opera house in Vienna, alongside Laurent Naouri. On 2 March 2009, Dessay sang the title role in La Sonnambula at the New York Metropolitan Opera. It was the first new production of the opera at the Met since Joan Sutherland sang the title role in the 1960s.^[8]

On 3 March 2010 the Metropolitan Opera announced that, on account of illness, she would not be performing Ophélie as scheduled in its new production of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet.

On 28 October 2011, Dessay was invited to sing at the Reopening of the Bolshoi theatre Gala with some other great lyric artists, such as Plácido Domingo.

In other media, Dessay provided the singing voice for the character of Anna Sörensen (played by Diane Kruger) in the movie Joyeux Noël (2005).

Dessay is married to the bass-baritone Laurent Naouri, and she converted to his Jewish faith.^[9] The couple has two children.^[1]

Recordings

DVDs

• The Miracle of the Voice – Greatest Moments on Stage
• Le rossignol (Stravinsky)
• La fille du régiment (Donizetti) – Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Bruno Campanella, BBC 2007
• Hamlet (Thomas)
• Manon (Massenet)
• Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
• Orphée aux enfers (Offenbach)
• Arabella (R. Strauss)
• La sonnambula (Bellini)
• Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
• Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss)

CDs

• La sonnambula (Bellini)
• Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
• Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)
• Orphée aux enfers (Offenbach)
• Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
• Mass in C Minor (Mozart)^{[clarification needed Great Mass in C minor, K. 427, or Waisenhaus, K. 139 ?]}
• Lakmé (Delibes)
• Mitridate (Mozart)
• Alcina (Handel)
• L'Orfeo (Monteverdi)
• "Vocalise" (Rachmaninov)
• Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (Handel)
• Magnificat (J. S. Bach) and Dixit Dominus (Handel)
• The Miracle of the Voice
• Delirio – Cantatas (Handel)
• Joyeux Noël (singing voice for the character Anna Sørensen)
• Mozart Heroines
• French Opera Arias
• Amor: Scenes and Lieder (R. Strauss)
• Bach: Cantatas (J. S. Bach)
• Italian Opera Arias (Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi)
• Mad Scenes (Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Bellini, and Leonard Bernstein)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Duchen, Jessica (12 December 2007). "Natalie Dessay: Comedienne dell'arte". The Independent. http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article3244628.ece. Retrieved 16 December 2007. 
2. ^ Conrad, Peter (16 December 2007). "A wicked witch who made us laugh and cry". The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2228097,00.html. Retrieved 16 December 2007. 
3. ^ Riding, Alan (23 March 2003). "Saying Goodbye to the Magic Flutes". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EEDC1531F930A15750C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 16 December 2007. 
4. ^ Phillip Huscher, The Santa Fe Opera: An American Pioneer, Santa Fe Opera, 2006, p. 148.
5. ^ Midgette, Anne (19 August 2004). "A Change in Santa Fe Opera in More Ways Than One". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E0D7113FF93AA2575BC0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 29 December 2007. 
6. ^ Santa Fe Opera's web site listing the 2009 season
7. ^ "Met to Add Seven New Productions for 2007–8" by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, (27 February 2007)
8. ^ Dessay, Natalie (Soprano), Metropolitan Opera Database. Accessed 1 April 2009.
9. ^ "La soprano Natalie Dessay se confie sur... sa conversion au judaïsme, les hommes à barbe et les Bee Gees!" at purepeople.com (15 December 2009), citing the magazine Têtu (French)

External links

• Dessay's Official Web Site
• Natalie Dessay, unofficial Web site
• Natalie Dessay recordings on EMI & Virgin Classics
• Virgin Classics short biography and discography
• Natalie Dessay at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Dessay, Natalie
Alternative names
Short description	French opera soprano
Date of birth	19 April 1965
Place of birth	Lyon, France
Date of death
Place of death