Sylvie Valayre

Sylvie Valayre (born 1964, Paris) is a French operatic soprano known for her versatile interpretations of lyric, spinto, and dramatic coloratura soprano parts. She sings grueling roles like Abigaille, Lady Macbeth or Turandot as well as lighter pieces like Giordano's Maddalena, Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), or Verdi's Desdemona at major opera houses around the world.
Education.
Born in Paris, she graduated at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of Christiane Eda-Pierre and Régine Crespin. She attended master classes of Cathy Berberian, Galina Vishnevskaya, Gino Bechi, Paul von Schilawsky in Florence and Montpellier, Giuseppe Di Stefano, who later chose her to perform a concert with him at Théâtre du Châtelet. Later, she undertook advanced studies with tenor Sergio Tedesco and with mezzo-soprano Catherine Green.
Early operatic career.
She began her career in 1984 with a play about Maria Malibran at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris, performing excerpts from operas like Semiramide and Norma (also available as DVD). Soon after, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya asked her to perform the title role in their production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride" at the Rome Opera.
In 1987, she sang her first Mozart opera, performing the role of Fiordiligi in "Così fan tutte". Other roles during this stage of her career included Mimi in "La Bohème", Tosca in "Tosca", Magda in "La rondine", Violetta in "La traviata", Norma in "Norma", Leonore in "Fidelio", Manon in "Manon Lescaut", Thaïs in "Thaïs", Adina in "L'elisir d'amore", Liù in "Turandot", the Infante in "Der Zwerg "(or "The Infante's Birthday") by Zemlinsky, "La Voix humaine "by Poulenc and more. In 1994, she was performing in major Italian houses in works like "La Voix humaine" (Trieste, Genova, Naples), "Cavalleria rusticana "(Trieste, Bologna), "L'heure espagnole "and "Il segreto di Susanna "(Opera of Trieste).
In 1995, in a production touring through the Netherlands, she debuted in the part of Lady Macbeth, later one of her signature parts.
International breakthrough and career.
In 1996, with the production of Venice's La Fenice, she made her debut in Warsaw in the part of Elisabetta in "Don Carlo". A few months later followed her debuts in "Nabucco" at Covent Garden Opera, "Madama Butterfly" in Naples and Venice (La Fenice) and in "Don Carlo" at Royal Albert Hall in London.
In 1997, Milan invited her onto the famous stage of La Scala to perform Ponchielli's "La Gioconda". Her debut in Milan was soon followed by other debuts at other famous opera houses: "Madama Butterfly" at San Francisco Opera, Verdi's "Jerusalem "at Carnegie Hall in New York, "Nabucco" in Zürich with Nello Santi as well as Nabucco, "Aida" and "Tosca "at the famous Arena di Verona, "Macbeth" in Paris and "Tosca" in Berlin. "Aida" in Munich followed and, in 2000, her first performances at the Metropolitan Opera in "Madama Butterfly". Later in 2000 "Manon Lescaut" at Opera Pacific, "Ernani "at the Madrid Opera, "Aida" in Macerata, "Tosca" in Paris and Tokyo, "La Gioconda" at Carnegie Hall and "Macbeth" in Berlin.
The year 2001 brought her to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as "Tosca", to Madrid with Verdi's "Requiem", to Brussels (Théâtre de la Monnaie) with "Antonio Pappano "and Zürich with "Macbeth", to Berlin in the title part of "Aida" and to Macerata with "Norma".
In 2002 she sang her first Chrysothemis ("Elektra") in Madrid under Daniel Barenboim, "Madama Butterfly" in Tokyo with Maestro Myung-whun Chung, "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Daniel Oren, the title part of "Salome" at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with Heinz Fricke and Verdi's "Requiem" in New York. In September and October, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera with Plácido Domingo and James Levine to give her first performances of "Andrea Chénier"'s Maddalena.
The 2003-2004 season was characterized by some significant first performances, such as the title part of "Turandot" in Berlin with Kent Nagano; the part of the Empress in Strauss's "Die Frau ohne Schatten", also in Berlin with Christian Thielemann; the part of Minnie in Puccini's "La fanciulla del West "in Zürich and the part of Amelia in "Un ballo in maschera "in Turin.
Other performances in 2003-04 were "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera and in Vienna, "Madame Butterfly" in Chicago and Naples, "Macbeth" in Berlin as well as "Nabucco" and "La Gioconda" in Zürich, again with Nello Santi. In August 2004 she joined Plácido Domingo for a Gala Concert "La corona di pietra" at the Arena di Verona (including a DVD production by Sony Classical).
The engagements of the 2004-05 season included, among others, "Salome" in Braunschweig and Athens with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as in Rome with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and in Tokyo; "Nabucco" and "Fedora" at the Vienna State Opera; "Tosca" in Zürich with Nello Santi, at the New York Metropolitan Opera with James Conlon, and in Washington, D.C.. Verdi's "Aida" at the Thermae of Caracalla in Rome, directed by Plácido Domingo, concluded the season.
In 2005-06, Domingo again invited her to Washington, D.C. to take part in the Gala performances "Trilogy - Domingo and Guests in 3 Acts" as Fedora. "Salome", "Macbeth" and "Turandot" at the Berlin State Opera, "Tosca" and "Nabucco" in Zürich, "Aida" at the Vienna State Opera and in Munich followed. She also participated in important new productions like "Macbeth" as Lady at the Verdi Festival in Parma under the baton of Bruno Bartoletti (including a DVD production by the label TDK) and as Elvira in Verdi's "Ernani" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, both in June 2006.
After the great successes gained with Puccini's "La fanciulla del West" and Giordano's "Andrea Chénier" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in September and October 2006, Valayre's engagements in 2006-07 also included "Nabucco" at the Opera House of Zürich, "Manon Lescaut" at Miami's Florida Grand Opera, "Macbeth" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and her role debut as Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" at the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw. The 2006-07 season was concluded by a new production of "Macbeth" at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the London Proms.
Her performances for 2007-08 included "Tosca" at the Opéra National de Paris, "Manon Lescaut" in Genova, "Nabucco" at Berlin's Deutsche Oper and "Turandot" in Tel Aviv. She also performed an extensive solo concert at the festival "Musiques au coeur" in Antibes in July 2008. In August 2008, she could be heard in Richard Strauss´ "Four Last Songs" and Ludwig van Beethoven's "9th Symphony" at Šaľa São Paulo, in Brazil, as part of the Cultura Artística International Series.
In the 2008-09 season, Sylvie Valayre could be heard frequently throughout Germany, among others at Semperoper Dresden and Staatsoper Berlin in "Macbeth" and "Turandot" as well as at Oper Leipzig in Peter Konwitschny's new production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida".
In January 2009, she debuted at San Diego Opera as "Tosca". In May and June 2009, Valayre was singing "Turandot" at Washington National Opera as well as in Budapest for two Gala performances.
In 2009-10, she returned to San Diego Opera for "Nabucco", to Oper Leipzig for "Aida", to Staatsoper Berlin for "Tosca" and gave her role debut as Odabella in Verdi's "Attila" in Marseille. In the title role of Puccini's "Turandot", she gave her house debut at Monte-Carlo Opera and inaugurated the new opera house in Guangzhou (China) under the baton of Lorin Maazel in May 2010.
In the 2010/11 season, Sylvie Valayre returned to the Opéra Bastille in Paris as Giorgetta in Puccini's "Il tabarro" under the baton of Philippe Jordan, sang a gala performance of "Madama Butterfly" in Mannheim and gave her debuts at Beejing Opera as Turandot and at Royal Opera Copenhagen as Empress in Strauss' "Die Frau ohne Schatten".
In November 2011, she sang her first Carmen at the Festival Ninon Vallin.
Performances in 2013 include a concert in London and her role debut as Senta in "The Flying Dutchman" at the Montepulciano Festival.
Quotes.
After her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 2000 as Cio-Cio San, the "New York Times "described her portrayal as "lovely, vulnerable" and reported that "her singing had poignancy and beauty - standing ovation".
In 2005, the "Washington Post "considered her "Tosca" in Washington, D.C. to be "filled with sparkling, stratospheric moments", noted that "here was a pleasing artistry in her singing that merged accurate intonation with an ability to move her sound smoothly across a wide vocal range" and wrote that "the top of her soprano voice is nothing less than extraordinary".
Great Britain's "The Daily Telegraph" reported on Verdi's "Macbeth" at the London Proms 2007 that Valayre was "a real find of a Lady Macbeth" and that she would possess "the ideal voice for the role: a dramatic soprano with an incisive edge and the dark-tinged richness of a mezzo."
Recordings.
1984: "La Malibran"
Théâtre Marigny, Paris
DVD
1991: Raffaello de Banfield: "Una lettera d'amore di Lord Byron"
Gianfranco Masini; Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia Romagna "Arturo Toscanini"
CD, Ermitage ERM 403
1991: Felice Lattuada: "Le preziose ridicole"
Gianfranco Masini; Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia Romagna "Arturo Toscanini"
CD, Aura Classics
1992: Philippe Hersant: "Le Chateau des Carpathes"
David Robertson; Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier
CD, Accord
1995: "Easter Concert from Paris" (Jean-Louis Florentz: "Mary's prayer at Golgotha")
Jean-Jacques Kantorow; Paris Orchestral Ensemble
DVD, Goldline Classics
2004: "La corona di pietra - Gala concert Arena di Verona with Placido Domingo" (Bellini: finale of "Norma")
Orchestra Arena di Verona
DVD, Sony - BMG
2006: Giuseppe Verdi: "Macbeth"
Bruno Bartoletti; Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Parma
DVD, TDK Music
2007: Christmas Album (Sylvie Valayre sings the traditional "What Child is This?")
Camerata of London
CD, MSM-CD
External links.
Links to audio and video examples.
Audio:
Video: