Elodie Méchain was rapidly noticed thanks to the natural of her rare real contralto tone, a natural voice discovered while she was studying for a professional career as a flutist. She won the competition « Voix Nouvelles » in 1998, was proclaimed lyrical revelation by the Adami in 2000, and nominated at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2002.
She is regularly sought out to sing French repertoire in which one she excels. Among her favourite roles, let’s point her few performances in Béatrice et Bénédict in Lausanne as well as in Luxembourg, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Paris at the Opera Comique, and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with the Orchestre Nationtal de France under Sir Colin Davis…She was heard in Thaïs by Massenet in Venice under Marcello Viotti, and was on number occasions Genevièvein Pelléas et Mélisande in Marseille, Nancy, Nice and Gand before singing it at the London Prom’s, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in concert version. She was a great success in the title role of Orphée by Glück in Lausanne and was heard in Carmen, Manon, Les Troyens (Anna), Pénélope and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Glyndebourne Festival and in Tokyo.
Above and Beyond the Opera, she enjoys touch on different repertoire as her performances in Baroque pieces prove it: Dido and Aeneas, Giulio Cesare, and Mozart : Die Zauberflöte in Paris, Nice, Lyon Lisbonne, Aix-en-Provence, Orange, Edinburgh…But she also sings the XIXth Century Repertoire : Die Walküre, Traviata, Manon Lescaut or wether Falstaff…About the XXth Century Repertoire : Adrianna Lecouvreur, Rusalka, Ariadne auf Naxos, A Midsummer night’s dream…
The dark harmonics of her voice fit very well the oratorio: Passions and Messe en si by Bach, Mozart’s Requiem, the Messe du Couronnement, Roméo and Juliette by Berlioz, Stabat Mater by Vivaldi, Pergolese and Dvořák. Recently, let’s point the Beethoven’s 9thSymphony in Lille and at the Saint-Denis Festival, Le Martyre of Saint-Sébastien by Debussy under Kurt Masur, Le Roi David by Honegger in Amsterdam and La Demoiselle élue with th Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
But she is particularly fond of the French mélodies (Debussy, Fauré,Ravel, Chausson) and of the German Lieder (Brahms, Schubert,Schumann, Strauss, Wagner). A recital at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, another one of Duparc orchestrated songs and one recording of Schubert with the pianist Maciej Pikulski attest of her implication in this repertoire.
Recently, Elodie Méchain sang in Rusalka for her debut at the Paris National Opera, as well as in Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s Requiem at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Les Mystères d’Isis in concert version at the Salle Pleyel, Lakmé at the Opera of Lausanne and at the Opéra Comique, Guillaume Tell at the Opera of Monte-Carlo and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, L’Enfant et les sortilèges in concert version in Paris, London and Chicago with Esa Pekka Salonen but also in Glyndebourne, Montpellier, Monte-Carlo with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Mikko Franck, Pénélope by Fauré in Strasbourg (Stage director : Olivier Py), L’Hirondelle Inattendue by Laks in Montpellier and Il Ritorno d’Ulisse at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in Dijon, Mozart’s Requiem in Hungary, Béatrice et Bénédict by Berlioz with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Pelléas et Mélisande in Montpellier and in Lisbon.
February 2024