Natalie Dessay (born 19 April 1965) is a French singer, actress, and known for her former career as an operatic coloratura soprano. 　　She received wide acclaim in roles such as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann, the title role in Lakmé, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. In her later career, she took up 19-century bel canto roles such as Amina in La sonnambula, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Violetta in La traviata and further explored baroque music. Since retiring from opera stage on 15 October 2013 she has pursued a career in theatre and in concert, where she now performs, besides classical, genres such as jazz and chansons. 　　She has made dozens of recordings under the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics label, and then under Warner Classics/Erato Records. Since 2016 she has been recording under Sony Classical Records. 　　French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay emerged on the international scene in the 1990s. A graduate of the Bordeaux Conservatoire, she took first prize in the Premier Prix de Concourse (First Prize of the Competition) in the France-Telecom Les Voix Nouvelles Competition, and then entered the Paris Opéra's training program for talented young singers, the Ecole d'Art Lyric (School of Lyric Art). There she sang Elisa in a production of Mozart's Il Rè Pastore. 　　After winning the International Mozart Competition of the Vienna State Opera in 1991, she received invitations for concert and recital appearances, most notably an all-Mozart recital on the stage of La Scala in Milan. She also made a recital recording with EMI Classics of Mozart arias that was an extraordinary success. 　　Quickly engaged by major opera houses around the world, she sang Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, Zaïde (the title role at the Opéra de Lyon and the Paris Opéra-Bastille), Adele (Die Fledermaus in Geneva), and Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos in Lyon and at the Bastille). 　　In 1992, Dessay debuted as Olympia in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, and in 1993, she sang at the opening of the New Lyon Opéra. In the same year she joined the roster of the Vienna Staatsoper, with a triumphant performance as Blondchen. She sang there in acclaimed production of Tales of Hoffmann (again as Olympia) with Plácido Domingo, and as Sophie in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier opposite Anne Sophie von Otter. 　　Another Strauss opera was the vehicle for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1994, where she sang Fiakermilli in Arabella. In that year, she also added to her credits the Queen of the Night (Mozart's Magic Flute) in the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the title role of Delibes' Lakmé at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. 　　Dessay enlarged the scope of her repertory in 1996, singing Strauss' rarely heard Die Schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) on her home stage in Vienna, Stravinsky's Nightingale at the Châtelet under Boulez, and Ophelia in Thomas' Hamlet at the Geneva Opera. Since then she has added Berg's Lulu, Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers, La Sonnambula, Lucia di Lammermoor, Massenet's Manon, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro to her repertory. 　　2013 saw the release of Becoming Traviata, a documentary film about Dessay's role as Violetta in a production of La traviata, directed by Jean-François Sivadier, with musical direction by Louis Langrée. The documentary chronicles the development of the production of Verdi's opera for the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France and subsequently staged for her at the Vienna State Opera. 　　In an interview published in Le Figaro on 4 October 2013, Dessay announced that the final operatic performance of her career would be in the title role of Massenet's Manon at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse on 15 October 2013. She said she intended to continue her performing career as a dramatic actress and chansonnier. 　　In May 2014 she released a new album, Rio-Paris.