Andrée Esposito

Andrée Esposito (born February 7, 1934) is a French opera singer, a lyric soprano particularly associated with the French repertory and contemporary works.

Biography

Andrée Esposito was born in Algiers, Algeria, into a family of French-Italian origin. She began her musical studies at the Music Conservatory of her native city, obtaining a first prize there. Shecompleted her studies at the Paris Music Conservatory, where she was a pupil of Louis Noguéra and Charles Panzéra. She made her professional debut at Metz, as Suzel in Camille Erlanger's "Le Juif Polonais".

Esposito was then quickly invited to all the major opera houses of France,including the Paris Opéra-Comique, singing the standard French light lyric reportory: Olympia in "Les contes d'Hoffmann", Philline in "Mignon", "Mireille", Micaela in "Carmen", Leila in "Les pêcheurs de perles", "Lakmé". She made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1959, as Violetta in "La traviata". Other roles there included, Rosina in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor", Gilda in "Rigoletto", Xenia in "Boris Godunov", Marguerite in "Faust", Juliette in "Roméo et Juliette", as well as Massenet's "Manon" and "Thais".

She was also a very active recitalist, especially of French songs by Chausson and Duparc. She participated in the creation of many contemporary works, such as "Le chevalier de neige" by Delerue, "Andrea del Sarto" by Daniel-Lesur, "The Mines of Sulphur" by Bennett, and "The Devils of Loudun" by Penderecki.

She also enjoyed singing in operettas, such as "Die Fledermaus", and "The Merry Widow.

Esposito was married to French baritone Julien Haas, with whom she often appeared on stage, the two were also active as voice teachers at the Strasbourg Music Conservatory.

Sources

* Alain Pâris, "Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle" (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X