From a very young age, Stéphanie d’Oustrac – Francis Poulenc’s great grandniece – started dedicating herself to music and the stage. With her intense presence on stage, her generous personality and her impeccable figure, Stéphanie d’Oustrac has become one of the most outstanding mezzos of her generation.

Her early career was notably devoted to the baroque repertoire. William Christie was the first to discover her talents as a singer and as an actress, and offered her her first tragic roles: Médée in Thésée by Lully and Psyché in Les Métamorphoses de Psyché (Lully-Quinault / Molière – Corneille). She has sung Médée by Charpentier conducted by Hervé Niquet (DVD, Armide Classics), Monteverdi’s trilogy with Jean-Claude Malgoire, Dido and Aeneas with William Christie, Sosarme at Saint Gallen, Les Paladins at the Théâtre du Châtelet (DVD Opus Arte), at the Barbican Center, in Shanghai and in Tokyo, Armide(title role) by Lully at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées (DVD Fra Musica), Alcina (Ruggiero) at the Opéra de Lyon, Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne Festival, in Marseille and Nancy, Orphée et Eurydice at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie…

Her perfect diction soon drew public attention and she has now become one of the most sought-after singers in the French repertoire. Her much acclaimed performances in Médée and Armide inevitably led her to Carmen, first at the Opéra de Lille where critics praised her for her debut and then in David McVicar’s production at the Glyndebourne Festival. She has also sung Les Contes d’Hoffmann (la Muse, Nicklausse) at the Opéra de Lausanne, L’Étoile (Lazuli) by Chabrier at the Opéra Comique and at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and L’Heure espagnole at the Glyndebourne Festival (DVD Fra Musica) and at the Teatro all’Opera in Rome, Dialogues des Carmélites (Mère Marie) at the Opéra d’Avignon, Pelléas et Mélisande at the Angers-Nantes Opera and Béatrice et Bénédict at La Monnaie in Brussels.

Mozart’s operas also have a very special place in Stéphanie d’Oustrac’s repertoire, as she has sung them on many major Opera stages around the world: Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino) in Tokyo, La Clemenza di Tito at the Opéra national de Paris, at the Opéra du Rhin, at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, in Baden Baden and in Luxembourg, Così fan tutte (Dorabella) at the Opéra national de Paris, Idomeneo (Idamante) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.

Her artistic personality appeals to prestigious stage directors such as Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Romeo Castellucci, Mariame Clément, Willy Decker, Jérôme Deschamps, Andreas Homoki, Yannis Kokkos, Jan Lauwers, David McVicar, Laurent Pelly, Bruno Ravella, Jean-François Sivadier, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Jean-Marie Villegier… as well as to the most respected conductors such as Alain Altinoglu, Myung-Whun Chung, James Conlon, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Sir Colin Davis, Stéphane Denève, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Jordan, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Marc Minkowski, Ludovic Morlot, John Nelson, Tomas Netopil, Kazushi Ono, Jérémie Rhorer, Michael Schønwandt…

Stéphanie d’Oustrac regularly appears in concert: Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre de Paris, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor conducted by John Nelson, Giovanna d’Arco by Rossini with the Orchestre d’Avignon, Les Nuits d’été with the Orchestre national de Lyon, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and La Mort de Cléopâtre with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre de Paris, L’Enfance du Christ with the Orchestre National de France and at La Monnaie in Brussels, Les Chants d’Auvergne by Canteloube with the Orchestre national de Lille at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Voix Humaine with the Orchestre National du Capitole of Toulouse, Shéhérazade with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester of Stuttgart, the Orchestre National de France, the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo, El amor brujo at the BBC Proms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, La Mort de Cléopâtre with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Oedipus Rex in Madrid, La Damnation de Faust with the Orchestre National de France…

Amongst her recordings, let us mention among others Atys (DVD Fra Musica), Carmen (DVD Opera de Lille), Ariadne auf Naxos, Lieder & Canzonetta by Haydn with Aline Zylberajch (Ambronay), L’Heure espagnole and Shéhérazade by Ravel (SWR Music), L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia) with Les Arts Florissants (harmonia mundi), Armide (title part) by Lully with Le Poème harmonique (Château de Versailles Spectacles), Iphigénie en Aulide (Clytemnestre) with Le Concert de la Loge (Alpha Classics)…

Stéphanie d’Oustrac has won several awards: Prix Bernac (1999), Radios Francophones (2000), Victoires de La Musique (2002), Gramophone Editor’s Choice for the Haydn CD (2010).

More recently, Stéphanie d’Oustrac made her debut in Werther (Charlotte) at the Opéra national de Lorraine acclaimed by the critics, a part she also sang in concert in Lyon and in Monte-Carlo, in Les Troyens (Cassandre) at the Opéra national de Paris in a new production by Dmitri Tcherniakov. She sang Theodora (Irene) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (DVD Erato), at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, L’Heure espagnole (Concepcion) and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (la Chatte, l’Ecureuil) at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Béatrice et Bénédict (Béatrice) at the Glyndebourne Festival and in concert version at the Opéra de Paris, La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto) with MusicAeterna directed by Teodor Currentzis in Bremen, Geneva, Dortmund, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in Wroclaw, but also at the Opéra de Paris and at the Liceu in Barcelona, L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia) in Zurich and at the Salzburg Festival, Médée by Charpentier (title role) at the Opernhaus Zürich, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), L’Aiglon (title role) at the Opéra de Marseille Carmen at the Aix-en-Provence’s Festival in a new production by Dmitri Tcherniakov and at the Teatro Real in Madrid staged by Calixto Bieito as well as at the Dallas Opera, at the Oper Köln, at the Opéra national du Rhin, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (La Muse, Nicklausse) at the Opéra de Paris, , Hippolyte et Aricie (Phèdre) in Zurich and in concert version at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Anna Bolena (Giovanna Seymour), Maria Stuarda (title part) and L’Heure Espagnole (Concepcion Roberto Devereux (Sara) in Geneva, Mignon (title role) at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, La Périchole and L’Heure Espagnole (Concepcion) at the Opéra Comique, La Voix humaine at the Glyndebourne Festival, Dialogues des Carmélites (Mère Marie) in Munich, Armide by Lully at the Opéra de Dijon and the Opéra royal de Versailles, Agrippina in Amsterdam…

Among her projects this season: L’Orontea in Milan, Castor et Pollux at the Opéra de Paris and the Salzburger Festspiele, Carmen and I Grotteschi at La Monnaie, Carmen in Québec…

January 2025

^{This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.}

Shéhérazade – Ravel

Shéhérazade - Ravel