It is no wonder that Marie-Nicole Lemieux shines today in the world of singing: the singer like the woman radiates an aura that belongs only to the greatest.
Her vocal talents were revealed to the public in 2000 when she won the Queen Fabiola and Lied Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium.
She then began an international career that has led her to the world’s most famous stages: Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, La Monnaie in Brussels, Staatsoper of Berlin, Munich and Vienna, Opernhaus Zürich, Theater an der Wien, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Chorégies d’Orange, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Montreal Opera…
Her powerful voice, her superb sense of line and a faultless virtuosity as well as her sense of nuance and drama allows her to triumph in various repertories. The beginning of her career is marked by baroque music (Orphée et Eurydice by Gluck, Giulio Cesare, Ariodante, Orlando Furioso, Salomon, Theodora…). The evolution of her voice soon allowed her to take on the French repertoire of the 19th century (Les Troyens, Pelléas et Mélisande, Samson et Dalila, Carmen…), Rossini (Guillaume Tell, Tancredi, L’Italiana in Algeri…), Verdi (Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica of Un Ballo in maschera…) and Wagner (Der Ring des Nibelungen).
Alongside her stage career, Marie-Nicole Lemieux is invited to sing the great symphonic repertoire with prestigious orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Les Violons du Roy, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra,Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia, London Philharmonia, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine…) under the baton of renown conductors such as: William Christie, Myung-Whun Chung, Paul Daniel, Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Franck, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Mikhaïl Tatarnikov, Michel Plasson, Michael Schønwandt, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Pinchas Steinberg, Pinchas Zukerman…
She is acclaimed as a peerless recital artist with an exceptional vocal palette having a special talent for French and Russian songs, as well as German Lieder.
Her discography is rich and multifaceted. In addition to her Vivaldi recordings for Naïve (Orlando Furioso - disc rewarded with a Victoire de la Musique in January 2005 -, Griselda, La fida ninfa, the Stabat mater, the Nisi dominus…), Marie-Nicole Lemieux has recorded, as a soloist, Les Nuits d’été by Berlioz, Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, L’Heure Exquise (French melodies with the pianist Daniel Blumenthal), a disc of Schumann’s Lieder, Ne me refuse pas with the Orchestre National de France (which was acclaimed by international critics and earned her the international prize at the Academy Charles Cros), Opera Arias (Gluck, Mozart, Haydn with Les Violons du Roy), Streams of Pleasure (Handel in duet with Karina Gauvin) and Chansons perpétuelles (piano recital with Roger Vignoles). She started a collaboration with Warner Classics in 2017 with a program dedicated to Rossini “Rossini, sì, sì, sì, sì !”. She then recorded Les Troyens (Cassandre), which was awarded by Gramophone Opera and Recording of the year 2018, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah”, given in concert with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Papappo, the CD “Mer(s)” with Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Le Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer by Chausson. The most recent CD released by Warner in September 2023 is dedicated to three cycles French melodies : Berlioz Les Nuits d’été, Saint-Saëns Les Mélodies persanes and Ravel Shéhérazade. She also recorded for Opera Rara the volume 4 of the Complete Donizetti songs with pianist Giulio Zappa, and took part for ATMA Classique to the project of Complete melodies of Massenet.
She could notably be heard in Falstaff (Mrs. Quickly) in London, Vienna, Paris, Milan, Montreal, Toronto and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Il Trittico (Zia Principessa and Zita) at the Theater an der Wien, L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella), Tancredi and Rodelinda at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Madama Butterfly (Suzuki) in Barcelona, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Chorégies d’Orange, the Opéra de Paris and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Il Trovatore (Azucena) in Salzbourg, at the Chorégies d’Orange and at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Un Ballo in maschera (Ulrica) at La Monnaie in Brussels, the Staatsoper Wiesbaden and the Opernhaus Zürich, Enescu’s Œdipe at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Les Troyens (Cassandre) conducted by John Nelson and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Werther (Charlotte) in Montpellier, Samson et Dalila (Dalila) in Montreal, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and at the Chorégies d’Orange, Carmen (title role) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse, at the Chorégies d’Orange and the Festival Classica, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Fricka) at La Monnaie, Jephtha (Storgè) by Handel and Das Rheingold (Erda) at the Paris National Opera, Suor Angelica at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
In concert, she sang Verdi’s Requiem at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Festival Hall of London, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Montreal Maison symphonique, Paris’ Philharmonie and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Chausson’s Poème de l’Amour de la Mer at the Paris’ Philharmonie, on tour with Santa Cecilia and in Cleveland under the direction of Antonio Pappano, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Bach Mass in B minor and Cent soleils by Matthew Ricketts with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Matthäus-Passion with Les Violons du Roy and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Wesendonck-Lieder with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in Montréal and on tour in Brussels and Paris, the Rückert-Lieder with the Orchestre Smphonique de Québec, Les Nuits d’été with the Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Montreal and on tour across Europe (Dortmund, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Paris), at the Lucerne Festival with Riccardo Chailly, with the Orchestre National de France and with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Roméo et Juliette with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No. 3 in Montréal, Vivaldi’s Juditha triomphans in Lyon and Paris, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the batin of Paul Daniel and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Les Siècles, Shéhérazade with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, Giovanna d’Arco at the Festival Classica, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Chorégies d’Orange, Saint-Saëns’ Mélodies persanes with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Brahms Alt-Rhapsodie with Le Cercle de l’harmonie at the Festival de Saint-Denis, the Kindertotenlieder with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
Among her projects this season: Carmen at the Opéra du Capitole de Toulouse, Falstaff at the Semperoper Dresden, Aida at the Opéra de Monte Carlo, Siegfried at the Opéra de Paris, Pelléas et Mélisande at La Scala in Milan and, in concert, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder for the opening of the season of the Staatskapelle in Dresden, Johannes-Passion with Il Caravaggio at the Atelier lyrique de Tourcoing, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence, and in a Brahms and Massenet program in recital at the Auditorium du Musée d’Orsay…
Marie-Nicole Lemieux is a Knight of the National Order of Quebec, Compagne des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, member of the Order of Canada and of the Order of the Pleiades, Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. She also has a Doctor Honoris Causa delivered by the Université du Québec in Chicoutimi.
September 2025
This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.
