Karine Deshayes

As one of the leading mezzo-sopranos in France, Karine Deshayes became a fixture at the Paris Opera House, starred in concerts and recitals across Europe and in America and built a revered reputation as a virtuoso with the ability to hit some impressive high notes. Born into a family of musicians, Deshayes studied musicology at the Sorbonne University and was trained in Baroque singing at the Conservatoire de Paris, before joining the Lyon Opera in 1988 where she cut her teeth playing roles such as Cherubino in The Marriage Of Figaro and Cupidon in Orphee Aux Enfers. Her big break came in 2002 when she played the kitchen hand in Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's opera Rusalka and she performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2006, before taking on major roles such as Carmen, Charlotte in Werther and Niclausse in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Mentored by singing teacher Mireille Alcantara since she was 19-years-old, Deshayes recorded a set of Gabriel Faure songs in 2011, teamed up with Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva for the record Pergolesi: Stabat Mater and also sang classic Broadway show tunes such as Somewhere Over The Rainbow, I Dreamed A Dream and Maria with the orchestra Ensemble Contraste on the album Songs. In 2016 she recorded her debut solo work Un Vie De Rossini on which she traced the life of Italian master composer Gioachino Rossini.

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