La sonnambula natalie dessay biography

Natalie Dessay may have retired from the opera stage, but her art continues to live on. And while she admits to never having felt comfortable on the stage, her performances show otherwise.

Born on April 19, 1965, OperaWire takes a look at some of her unforgettable roles on stage.

Olympia in ‘Les Contes d’Hoffmann’

The role of Olympia was perhaps the one that brought Dessay acclaim and shined a bright international spotlight on her.

Juan diego florez

She first inhabited the automaton in 1992 at the Bastille in a production by Roman Polanski. It would be her warhorse for many years in houses like Lyon, Orange, Vienna and even the Metropolitan Opera. There are several video recordings of her Olympia and one always notices the amount of fun she had as the robot. Later in her career, Dessay was scheduled to sing all three heroines but opted out of Olympia and Giulietta and instead took on Antonia.

Marie in ‘La Fille du Regiment&