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 19thcentury (Les Troyens, Pelléas et Mélisande, Samson et Dalila, Carmen…), Rossini (Guillaume Tell, Tancredi, L’Italiana in Algeri…) and also Verdi (Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in UnBallo in maschera…)
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 Wesendoncklieder, Mahler’s Rückertlieder, 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 with a program dedicated to Rossini and recorded Les Troyens (Cassandre), which was awarded Opera and Recording of the year 2018. The recording of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, given in concert with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Papappo, was recently released.
Lately, 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 Carmen at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Madama Butterfly (Suzuki) in Barcelona, Amsterdam’s, the Chorégies d’Orange and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Il Trovatore (Azucena) with Placido Domingo and Anna Netrebko in Salzbourg, with Roberto Alagna at the Chorégies d’Orange and at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Un Ballo in maschera (Ulrica) at La Monnaie in Brussels, Wiesbaden and Zürich, Enescu’s Œdipe at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Les Troyens (Cassandre) conducted by John Nelson, Samson et Dalila (Dalila) at the Montreal Opera in a concert version at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and at the Chorégies d’Orange, Jephtha (Storgè) by Handel at the Paris National Opera staged by Claus Guth, Pelléas et Mélisande for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Werther (Charlotte) in Bordeaux, Carmen (title role) in Toulouse and Les Troyens (Cassandre) at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
In concert, she sang Verdi’s Requiem (Vienna’s Musikverein, Royal Festival Hall of London, 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. 2 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Juditha triomphans in Lyon and Paris, Matthäus-Passion with Les Violons du Roy and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Wesendonck Lieder, the Rückert Liederand Das Lied von Erde with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Wesendonck Lieder with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Les Nuits d’été with the Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Seguin in Montreal, at the Lucerne Festival with Riccardo Chailly and on tour across Europe (Dortmund, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Paris), Edgar’s Sea Pictures and Le Chant de la terre with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the baton of Paul Daniel, Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Orchestre de Paris, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Radamisto with Il Pomo d’Oro on tour la Missa solemnis at the Chorégies d’Orange, les Mélodies persanesde Saint-Saëns avec l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.
Some of her future projects include Il Trovatore (Azucena) in Montreal, Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Opéra National de Paris, Un Ballo in maschera (Ulrica) and Les Troyens (Cassandre) in Munich, Carmen (title role) at the Chorégies d’Orange and she will be part of the new Ring des Nibelungen in Brussels and in Paris. In concert, she will sing Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz with the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, Le Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orlando Furioso with the Ensemble Matheus and various tours with, among other, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Les Violons du Roy, Les Siècles and Les Epopées.
Marie-Nicole Lemieux is a Knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 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. She also has a Doctor Honoris Causa delivered by the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
August 2022
This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.
