Lea Desandre

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Lea Desandre
Lea Desandre.jpg
Desandre in 2020 with lutenist Thomas Dunford
Born1993 (age 3132)
Occupation Opera singer
Website www.leadesandre.com
Lea Desandre performs Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Les Arts Florissants in 2020

Lea Desandre (born 1993) is a French-Italian operatic mezzo-soprano.

Contents

Biography

Desandre was born in 1993 [1] [2] to a French father and an Italian mother. [3] Desandre trained in dance as a child, and she joined the children's choir of the Opéra national de Paris at the age of twelve. She later moved to Venice to train under Sara Mingardo. Desandre joined William Christie's Jardin des Voix  [ fr ] in 2015. [4] [5] She performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2016, and she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2018. [4]

Desandre is noted for her performances of Baroque music, [6] with The New York Times writing in 2022 that she "has established herself as one of today’s most exciting voices in early-music performance". [7] Since 2015, Desandre's roles have included Urbain in Les Huguenots , Rosina in The Barber of Seville , Annio in La clemenza di Tito , Sesto in Giulio Cesare , Dido in Dido and Aeneas , La Messaggera in L'Orfeo , and Flerida in Erismena . [8] Desandre also performs chamber music, including regular appearances with lutenist Thomas Dunford and his Jupiter Ensemble. [7] [8]

Awards

References

  1. "Lea Desandre". Olyrix.com (in French). Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  2. Tion, Guillaume (22 June 2017). "Lea Desandre sous bonne étoile". Libération (in French). Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  3. Jay Nordlinger (22 August 2023). "A Conversation with Lea Desandre, Italian-French Mezzo-Soprano". National Review . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Lea Desandre". Opéra national de Paris . Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  5. "Jeune Talent: Lea Desandre". Opéra Magazine (in French). Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  6. Fiona Maddocks (6 November 2021). "Classical home listening: Lea Desandre's Amazone; Rossini's Petite messe solennelle". The Guardian . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  7. 1 2 Rebecca Schmid (12 August 2022). "Lea Desandre Gives a Modern Voice to Early Music". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  8. 1 2 "Lea Desandre". Warner Classics . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  9. "Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres – été 2020" (in French). Ministry of Culture . Retrieved 27 September 2025.