Lea Desandre

Lea Desandre,
mezzo-soprano

“Lea Desandre brought life and beauty to everything she touched.” New York Times

French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre studied in Venice with Sara Mingardo and was selected for William Christie’s Jardin des Voix in 2015. She was awarded Vocal Discovery and Lyrical Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2017 and 2021 respectively. In addition to her vocal talents, she is also a trained ballet dancer.

Most recently in 2021, she had huge success making her role debut as Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro/Mozart) in Aix-en-Provence. She has since sung it at Opéra de Paris, Zurich Opera House, Liceu Barcelona and Opéra de Lausanne.

In 2017, she made her debut in the title role of Alcione at the Opéra Comique and returned the following season for a one-woman show (Et in Arcadie ego/Rameau). She sang at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2017 in Erismena (Cavalli) and made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2018 in Incoronazione di Poppea (Valletto & Amore/Monteverdi). She has been returning ever since: Vénus (Orphée aux Enfers/Offenbach) and Abel (La Morte d’Abel/Caldara) in 2019, Despina (Cosi fan tutte/Mozart) in 2020 & 2021, Annio (La Clemenza di Tito/Mozart) in 2021, as well as numerous recitals of Mozart arias.

Other roles have included Urbain (Les Huguenots/Meyerbeer) at Grand Théâtre de Genève; Idamante (Idomeneo/Mozart) at Staatsoper Berlin; Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia/Rossini), Amour (Orphée/Gluck-Berlioz) and Messaggiera (Orfeo/Monteverdi) at Harris Theater Chicago.

Concert appearances and song recitals have taken her to places such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London!s Wigmore Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Berliner Philharmoniker, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Philharmonie de Paris, Mozarteum Salzburg, Sydney Opera House, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Alice Tully Hall NY, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Shanghai Symphony Hall and Opéra de Versailles.

She has collaborated with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Myung-Whun Chung, Enrique Mazzola, William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Joana Mallwitz, Raphaël Pichon, Jordi Savall, Emmanuelle Haïm, Laurence Equilbey and Christophe Rousset, and directors such as Barrie Kosky, Christof Loy, Netia Jones, Lotte de Beer, Jan Lawyers, Jossi Wieler and Jean-Yves Ruf.

Lea’s first solo recital CD, Amazone (awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice in 2021), was recorded in exclusivity with Erato Warner and features the Jupiter Ensemble conducted by Thomas Dunford with guests Cecilia Bartoli, Véronique Gens and William Christie.

In 2022/23, she will sing Cherubino (Mozart) at the Zurich Opera House and at Salzburg Festspiele, Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette/Gounod) at Opéra de Paris, Dido (Purcell) at Teatros del Canal, Annio (La Clemenza di Tito/Mozart) on a European tour, « Berenice che fai ? » (Haydn) at Musikverein Wien with Adam Fischer/Wiener Philharmoniker; Great mass in C minor (Mozart) at Santa Cecilia with Manfred Honeck; at Philharmonie de Paris with William Christie/Paul Agnew; Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Staatsoper Berlin and on a US tour with Thomas Dunford/Jupiter.