Biography

Considered as one of the best singers of her generation, three times awarded best “Singer of the year” at the Victoire de la Musique, Karine Deshayes first joined the troupe of the Lyon Opera before to be invited by the more important opera houses. At the Paris Opera she successfully sang Mozart roles (Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira), Rossini roles (Angelina, Rosina, Elena), but also Poppea (Incoronazione di Poppea), Romeo (I Capuleti e I Montecchi), Charlotte (Werther), Carmen and Urbain (Les Huguenots). She sang the title-roles of Rossini’s Armida (at the Montpellier Opera) and Semiramide (At the Saint-Etienne Opera), Gluck’s Alceste at the Lyon Opera, Elvira (Malibran version of Puritani) at the Festival of Radio France and Montpellier, Marguerite (Damnation de Faust) in Nice Opera and at the Paris Philharmonie.

Outside France, she sang at the Salzburg Festival (Die Zauberflöte under Riccardo Muti), Theâtre de La Monnaie (Marie de l’Incarnation in Dialogues des Carmélites), the Liceu in Barcelona (the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon), the Teatro Real Madrid (Adalgisa in Norma), in San Francisco (La Cenerentola) and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Siébel in Faust, Isolier in Le Comte Ory, Nicklausse/La Muse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann under James Levine and Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette).

More recently she sang Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at the Chorégies d’Orange, Charlotte (Werther) at the Toulouse Théâtre du Capitole, Adalgisa (Norma) at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Elena (La Donna del Lago) and Balkis (Gounod’s Reine de Saba) at the Marseille Opera, Angelina (Cenerentola) at the Paris Theâtre des Champs Elysées, Liege royal Opera and the Theatro Real Madrid.

She also has a huge success in the title role of Rossini’s Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra at the Pesaro Festival and in Marseille, Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena) at the Zürich Opera and in concert at the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Valentine (Les Huguenots) at the Royal Theater of la Monnaie and in the title role of Norma at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence,la Comtessa (Nozze di Figaro) at the Toulouse Theatre du Capitole, Médée (Lully’s Thésée) in concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées the Brussels Bozar and at the Theater an der Wien, Adalgisa (Norma) in Hamburg, Valentine (Les Huguenots) and Sélika (L'Africaine) at the Marseille Opera, Concepcion (L'Heure Espagnole) in  Rome. 

Among her future projects, the tittle-role of Norma at the Opera National du Rhin, in Marseille, Bordeaux and in Toulouse Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Madama Cortese (Il Viaggio  a Reims) at the  Pesaro Festival,  The Queen Gertrude (Hamlet) in Montréal, the title-role of Semiramide in Rouen and at the  Théâtre des Champs-Elysées,…