Natalie Dessay is a dazzling opera singer. She is also an actress of intensity and magnetism, whether in tragedy or comedy. Her charisma, captured on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and in the recording studio, illuminates the complete operas and recitals of arias and scenes in this collection. From Mozart’s furious Queen of the Night to Debussy’s enigmatic Mélisande … Offenbach’s robotic Olympia to Strauss’s flirtatious Zerbinetta and Delibes’ devoted Lakmé … Handel’s mercurial Cleopatra to Donizetti’s boisterous Marie and desperate Lucia… Thomas’s fragile Ophélie to Massenet’s capricious Manon and Verdi’s passionate, tragic Violetta … Natalie Dessay proves irresistible in repertoire that spans four centuries and a wealth of musical and dramatic possibilities.
NATALIE DESSAY: THE OPERA SINGER comprises 33 CDs and 19 DVDs, demonstrating Dessay’s achievement as a singing actress both in purely vocal terms and as a bête de scene (‘stage animal’).
That box represents the COMPLETE COLLECTION OF OPERA RECORDINGS she did in audio and video.
CDs
• 12 complete operas, ranging from the Baroque era to the 20th century:
Bellini: La sonnambula; Delibes: Lakmé; Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor and Lucie de Lammermoor (French version of the opera, prepared by the composer for Paris); Handel: Alcina; Monteverdi: Orfeo; Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Mitridate; Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann; Orphée aux enfers; Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos; Stravinsky: Le Rossignol;
• Seven recital discs covering Handel, Mozart, Strauss and a variety of French and Italian repertoire.
DVDs
• 12 complete operas, again ranging from the Baroque era to the 20th century, recorded at some of the world’s major opera houses and festivals:
Bellini: La sonnambula; Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande; Donizetti: La Fille du régiment; Handel: Giulio Cesare; Massenet: Manon; Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann; Orphée aux enfers; Strauss: Arabella; Ariadne auf Naxos; Stravinsky: Le Rossignol; Thomas: Hamlet; Verdi: La traviata
• ‘Greatest Moments on Stage’: a DVD of scenes, all featuring Dessay at her most virtuosic, recorded live at some of the world’s major opera houses and festivals, from works by Bernstein, Donizetti, Mozart, Offenbach, Ravel, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss and Thomas. The video also includes commentary from Dessay herself.
• DVD BONUS: Lucia di Lammermoor’s Mad Scene filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera in 2007
Among the other major singers appearing on NATALIE DESSAY: THE OPERA SINGER are:
Roberto Alagna, Cecilia Bartoli, Ian Bostridge, Charles Castronovo, Patrizia Ciofi, Stéphane Degout, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Véronique Gens, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Sumi Jo, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sophie Koch, Gregory Kunde, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Felicity Lott, Francesco Meli, Laurent Naouri (who is also Natalie Dessay’s husband), Anne Sofie von Otter, Patricia Petibon, Sandrine Piau, Samuel Ramey, Michael Spyres, Kiri Te Kanawa, Ludovic Tézier, Violeta Urmana, José van Dam, Rolando Villazón, Deborah Voigt
Among the conductors are:
William Christie, James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnányi, Emmanuelle Haïm, James Levine, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Christophe Rousset, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christian Thielemann
