Natalie Dessay

Acting

Natalie Dessay

Born 1965-04-19 · Lyon, Rhône, France

Natalie Dessay is of the most prominent operatic singers to have come out of France. While active in the opera field, her voice was especially gifted for belcanto singing, and more recently she has moved on to undertake a new career in theatre. Although she halted her appearances on opera stages around 2013 and has been focusing on acting since, she continues to perform on recitals.

Acting credits

No artwork available
1.0

Live performance 10 February 2011 at the Palais Garnier. Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert d'Astrée and les Choeurs de l'Opéra national de Paris. Directed for stage by Laurent Pelly.

Jules César

2011

Joyeux Noel poster
7.3

France, 1914, during World War I. On Christmas Eve, an extraordinary event takes place in the bloody no man's land that the French and the Scots dispute with the Germans…

Joyeux Noel

2005

La Fille du Régiment - Metropolitan Opera poster
7.0

Madcap physical comedy and impeccable coloratura come together for Natalie Dessay’s indelible portrayal of the feisty tomboy raised by a regiment of French soldiers. Juan Diego Flórez is the young Swiss villager who conquers her heart—and a slew of high Cs. Also featuring uproarious performances by Felicity Palmer and Alessandro Corbelli, as well as a cameo by Tony Award winner Marian Seldes, this laugh-out-loud production was a runaway hit that left audiences exhilarated.

La Fille du Régiment - Metropolitan Opera

2008

Le Rossignol poster
NR

Getting into his grandfather's pottery workship at night, a little boy finds an unusually large vase. Fascinated, the child feels the still-warm material, which - whether by a miracle ot the hand of a magician, who knows? - at once changes into a magnificent piece of Chinese porcelain. Presently, from behind the great blue-enamelled trees, there appears a fisherman in his sampan... That's how the story of "The Nightingale", told all in music, begins, as the waking dream of a child in the land of Chinese art - and of mobile phones and webcams.

Le Rossignol

2005

Dilili in Paris poster
6.6

With the help of her delivery-boy friend, Dilili, a young Kanak, investigates a spate of mysterious kidnappings of young girls that is plaguing Belle Epoque Paris. In the course of her investigation she encounters a series of extraordinary characters, each of whom provides her with clues that will help her in her quest.

Dilili in Paris

2018

Amours divins ! poster
NR

The most famous Scenes and Arias from French operas

Amours divins !

2016

Michel Legrand, la musique enchantée poster
8.0

The soundtracks of Michel Legrand, died in 2019, made cinema sublime. With Natalie Dessay and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, a delightful tribute to the immense composer, recorded at the Maison de la radio et de la musique.

Michel Legrand, la musique enchantée

2022

CANAL+'s 30th anniversary poster
6.0

Primetime special to celebrate 30 years of CANAL+.

CANAL+'s 30th anniversary

2014

Pelléas et Mélisande poster
NR

Pelleas et Melisande The story takes place in the imaginary kingdom of Allemonde, governed by the aged King Arkel.

Pelléas et Mélisande

2009

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

2012

Véronique Sanson : Hasta Luego ! poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Véronique Sanson : Hasta Luego !

2024

Orphée aux enfers poster
8.7

Marc Minkowski conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera National de Lyon in this 1997 production of Offenbach's opera starring Natalie Dessay, Yann Beuron, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt and Laurent Naouri.

Orphée aux enfers

1997

Ici Nougaro ! Le concert évènement poster
NR

Twenty years after Claude Nougaro's death, numerous artists came together to participate in a grand tribute concert in Toulouse, the city he sang about so beautifully. Under the direction of Yvan Cujious and Yvan Cassar, conducting the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, this event brought together Bénabar, Nolwenn Leroy, BigFlo et Oli, Cali, Ben l'oncle Soul, Jean-Pierre Mader, Anne Sila, Natalie Dessay, Cats on Trees, and others, in front of thousands of nostalgic spectators. Recorded on September 8, 2024, at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, Occitanie.

Ici Nougaro ! Le concert évènement

2024

Fauteuils d'orchestre (Renaud Capuçon) poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Fauteuils d'orchestre (Renaud Capuçon)

2017

La voix des steppes poster
NR

A little boy Anatole lives in 1960s in the steppe in Kazakhstan with his parents-archaeologists. One day he witnesses the accidental death of his brother, this drama traumatizes the boy so much that he loses his ability to speak. Once he meets an old Kazakh who will teach him to hear again the world around him and will teach him how to speak again. The whole life of Anatole depends from now on from his ability to hear. His ear connects him to the world. 50 years later, the steppe calls him again.

La voix des steppes

2014

Natalie Dessay & Rolando Villazón - Massenet: Manon poster
6.0

Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazón bring Jules Massenet's classic opera to the stage in this dazzling production. In 18th-century France, Manon (Dessay) faces life as a nun, despite catching the eye of many men. When she meets the handsome but penniless des Grieux (Villazón), she falls deeply in love. The pair elopes, but their future together is threatened by outside forces.

Natalie Dessay & Rolando Villazón - Massenet: Manon

2007

Becoming Traviata poster
6.5

How can emotion come to light on the opera set? Does it come from singing, acting or music? How can someone become the incarnation of Verdi's masterpiece? Following world famous French soprano Natalie Dessay from the first repetitions until the premiere under the direction of Jean-François Sivadier, we meet a very special woman, a piece of art, a myth: LA TRAVIATA.

Becoming Traviata

2012

Britten: Peter Grimes poster
NR

Anthony Dean Griffey creates a haunting portrait of the outcast fisherman who struggles under the burden of presumed guilt. This chilling production by Tony Award-winning director John Doyle also features the superb Patricia Racette as the sympathetic Ellen Orford and the Met chorus in a truly hair-raising performance as the oppressively judgmental fishing village.

Britten: Peter Grimes

2008

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg poster
8.7

Geneviève lives with her mother who runs an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She falls in love with Guy, who is called up for military service in Algeria and leaves the city. The lovers separate, promising each other eternal love. But Geneviève soon discovers that she is pregnant and ends up giving in to her mother's pressure by marrying Roland, a rich jeweler who has long coveted her. When Guy returns to Cherbourg, he discovers Geneviève's marriage and finds his seriously ill aunt who is faithfully cared for by Madeleine, who has been in love with him for years.

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

2015

The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor poster
NR

The tragic tale of "the bride of Lammermoor" has always been a favorite of opera-goers and sopranos alike. Yet with the riveting singing actress Natalie Dessay in the title role, Lucia's plight and descent into madness take on another dimension. Joseph Calleja is an ardent Edgardo, the man she loves but is not allowed to marry. Instead, her brother Enrico forces her into a union with the rich Arturo to save the family fortunes. It proves too much to bear for Lucia.

The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor

2011

Arabella poster
7.0

Arabella, Op. 79, is a lyric comedy or opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration.

Arabella

1994

Michel Legrand, enchanted music poster
NR

The Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and distinguished guests pay tribute to Michel Legrand.

Michel Legrand, enchanted music

2022

The Metropolitan Opera: Ariadne auf Naxos poster
NR

Elijah Moshinsky’s witty production deftly walks the line between the lighthearted humor and the profound philosophical underpinnings of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s opera, masterfully conducted here by Met Music Director James Levine. Deborah Voigt stars as Ariadne, the mythical heroine abandoned on the island of Naxos by her lover, and Richard Margison is Bacchus, the young god who eventually takes her away to a new life. The spectacular Natalie Dessay as Zerbinetta leads the troupe of comedians who unsuccessfully try to cheer Ariadne up. Susanne Mentzer is delightful as the young Composer of the opera-within-the-opera, and Wolfgang Brendel sings the Music Master.

The Metropolitan Opera: Ariadne auf Naxos

2003

The Metropolitan Opera: Iphigénie en Tauride poster
NR

Gluck’s gripping adaptation of the ancient Greek myth is vividly brought to life by a stellar cast in Stephen Wadsworth’s atmospheric production. Oreste is driven by the Furies to atone for killing his mother Clytemnestre. When he and his companion Pylade are shipwrecked on the island of Tauride, the king Thoas demands they be sacrificed. At the center of the drama is Iphigénie, Oreste’s long-lost sister. Forced to live among her enemies, she holds the lives of the captives in her hands—unaware that one of them is her brother. (Iphigénie en Tauride is performed in an adaptation of the 1779 Paris version edited by Gerhard Croll, by arrangement with Bärenreiter.)

The Metropolitan Opera: Iphigénie en Tauride

2011