Natalie Dessay Ave

Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in The same year, he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Piano Competition; three years later, he won first prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition.

Mr. Cassard has performed as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre National de France, and many more. He regularly visits China, Australia, South America, and Canada, and has worked with many conductors, including Sir Neville Marriner, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Raymond Leppard, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, and Thierry Fischer.

Mr. Cassard's performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day)-presented in London (Wigmore Hall), Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, Singapore, and Tokyo-received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. Released by Decca, the collection was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque in

Mr. Cassard also performs a large repertoire of chamber music, and has appeared with such artists as Angelika Kirchschlager, Wolfgang Holzmair, Cédric Pescia, Paul Meyer, David Grimal, Anne Gastinel, Matt Haimovitz, and Isabelle Faust; as well as with the Ebène, Modigliani, Takács, Auryn, Vanbrugh, Danish, and Chilingirian string quartets.

His recording of Schumann's Humoreske and Fantasiestücke was named Editor's Choice by Gramophone. Mr. Cassard's other releases (Schubert's Impromptus and Brahms's Klavierstücke, Op. ) have been received very warmly. His recent Schubert recording (including the Piano Sonata in
A Major, D. , and four-hands piano music) with Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia for La Dolce Volta was awarded Classica's Choc de l'année.

Mr. Cassard served as artistic director of the Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget festival from to Since , he has presented more than live programs dedicated to piano interpretation on France Musique radio. He has written an essay on Schubert, and a book on cinema and music.

Natalie Dessay
Dessay in
Born	() 19 April (age&#;53) Lyon, France
Spouse(s)	Laurent Naouri

Natalie Dessay (French:&#;[999essays.com də.sɛ]; born Nathalie Dessaix, 19 April , in Lyon) is a French opera singer who had a highly acclaimed career as a coloratura soprano before leaving the opera stage on 15 October 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.

Career[edit]

In her youth, Dessay had intended to be a ballet dancer and then an actress.^[1] She discovered her talent for singing while taking acting classes and shifted her 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 Second Prize followed by a year's study at Paris Opera's Ecole d'Art Lyrique, where she sang "Elisa" in Mozart's Il re pastore. 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.

In April and May 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 the 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 , she was asked to replace Cheryl Studer in one of the three female roles in a production of Hoffmann at the Vienna State Opera.

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. Blondchen in Die Entführung and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos became her best known and most often played roles.

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

At the Aix-en-Provence Festival, 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 she did not want to play evil characters, director Robert Carsen convinced her that this Queen would be different, almost a sister to Pamina; Dessay agreed to do the role.

During the – 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 the 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 ^[3]

In the summer of , 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 the Santa Fe Opera quickly rearranged its schedule to feature her in a new production of La sonnambula during the season.^[4][5] She returned to Santa Fe in the season as Pamina in The Magic Flute and gave her first performance in the role of Violetta in La traviata^[1] there on 3 July in a production staged by Laurent Pelly. Her husband, Laurent Naouri, appeared as her lover's father, Giorgio Germont.^[6]

Dessay's / 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 appeared in two new productions during the –08 season at the Met: as Lucia on opening night, and in a reprise of the London production of La fille du régiment.^[7] In January she sang the part of Mélisande in a much acclaimed production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna's second world-class opera house, alongside Laurent Naouri. On 2 March , 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 ^[8]

In February , Dessay said in an interview with Le Figaro that she would take a sabbatical from opera performance in ^[9]

saw the release of Becoming Traviata, a documentary film about Dessay's role as Violetta in a production of La traviata, directed by Jean-François Sivadier, with musical direction by Louis Langrée. The documentary chronicles the development of the production of Verdi's opera for the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France and subsequently staged for her at the Vienna State Opera.

In an interview published in Le Figaro on 4 October , Dessay announced that the final operatic performance of her career would be in the title role of Massenet's Manon at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse on 15 October She said she intended to continue her performing career as a dramatic actress and chansonnière.^[10]

In May she released a new album, Rio-Paris.

Awards and honors[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Dessay is married to the bass-baritoneLaurent Naouri, and she converted to his Jewish faith.^[11] The couple have two children.^[1]

Repertory[edit]

Discography[edit]

DVDs[edit]

CDs[edit]

Solo recitals and collaborations[edit]

Operas[edit]

Sacred and concert works[edit]

Soundtrack / spoken[edit]

Joint albums[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]