Emmanuelle de Negri

Biography

“Emmanuelle de Negri demonstrates masterly accomplishment, overcoming, with exquisite sensitivity, all aesthetic demands … her phrasing, with perfect declamation and projection, conceals aristocratic refinement behind a façade of simplicity …” Diapason
“My heart skipped a beat at the Sangaride of Emmanuelle de Negri, a wounded angel with a voice of honey.” Le Figaro

From its very beginning Emmanuelle de Negri’s career demonstrated remarkable breadth of repertoire and emotional range. After a flying start as Yniold in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Edinburgh and Glasgow: “poignant brightness” wrote Opera magazine), and as “a real revelation” (Il Giornale della Musica) in the title-role of Bernardo Pasquini’s oratorio Sant’ Agnese (Innsbruck Festival), she established an enduring performing relationship with William Christie and les Arts Florissants, for whom outstanding performances have included Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen, and Dido and Aeneas, Handel's Susanna and Silete venti, Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale, and numerous roles in French Baroque operas including Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne) and Platée (Theater an der Wien, Opéra Comique and New York), Lully’s Atys (Sangaride – “a sensation” according to Opéra magazine), Campra’s Les Fêtes vénitiennes (Opéra Comique, Caen and Toulouse) and Palès in Mondonville’s Titon et l’Aurore staged by Basil Twist (Opéra Comique and Versailles).

Emmanuelle has made regular performances with other prominent French ensembles such as Pulcinella, Les Folies Françoises, Les Enfants d'Apollo, Raphaël Pichon’s Pygmalion, Vincent Dumestre's Le Poème Harmonique, Le Banquet Céleste, Les Paladins, and Les Accents. For Emmanuelle Haïm and her Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle also sung in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (Lille, Dijon, Montpellier and Beaune), and recently, in a new production of Rameau‘s Les Boréades staged by Barrie Kosky (Opéra de Dijon), leading to unanimous praise from the press: « we kneel before Emmanuelle de Negri... she enchants us with her tone, the control of the accent, and her vocal reliefs » (Diapason).

Further opera roles have ranged from Monteverdi (La Musica L’Orfeo) and Cavalli (Amastre Serse), to Offenbach (Cupidon Orphée aux Enfers) and Dukas (Mélisande Ariane et Barbe-Bleue) through Rameau (Erinice Zoroastre), and Mozart (Papagena Die Zauberflöte and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro). Emmanuelle de Negri’s 2017 season was notable for her debut at the Opéra National de Paris (Nedda Gianni Schicchi), and for performing Almirena in a new touring production of Handel’s Rinaldo. She recently sang the role of Bircenna in Hasses’s Cajo Fabricio with {oh!} Orkiestra under the direction of Martyna Pastuszka (Gliwice and Theater an der Wien).

2018/19 began at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, performing a “perfectly delicious” (forumopera.com) Despina (Cosi fan tutte) for Riccardo Muti, and continued with Amestris in Destouches’ Sémiramis (Ensemble Les Ombres, Festival d’Ambronay), the title-role of Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo (Le Banquet Céleste, Bruges Concertgebouw), Airs sérieux et à boire with les Art Florissants (Philharmonie de Paris, Martigny, Switzerland, and London’s Wigmore Hall), Les Indes galantes at the Festival de Beaune, and Scarlatti’s Santa Teodosia at the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu.

The soprano recently sang Cephise in Schürmann’s Die Getreue Alceste under Christina Pluhar (Rokokotheater Schwetzingen), the revival of Les Indes galantes and Sémiramis (Versailles), Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Accademia Bizantina (Cremona, Dortmund Beaune and Halle), and, again with les Arts Florissants, Messiah on tour (Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan). She celebrated Molière along with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants (Versailles, Thiré, Luxemburg, Athens, and Paris). She also toured with Handel's Israel in Egypt alongside René Jacobs and the Freiburger Barockorchester (Paris, Freiburg, and Berlin).

Emmanuelle will open the season 2022/23 with a recital dedicated to Purcell’s Orpheus Britannicus accompanied by harpsichordist Brice Sailly (Bayreuth Baroque). At the Festival Ouverture! (Sémur-en-Auxois, France), she will sing some French cantatas with Thibault Noally’s Les Accents as well as a recital of French melodies accompanied by Romain Descharmes. She will join many programmes with Les Arts Florissants including Telemann’s Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit and In nativitatem Domini Canticum. On stage, Emmanuelle will sing the title role in Rameau’s Io and Héro in de la Garde's Héro et Léandre for a new production of Opéra Lafayette (New York and Washington). She will also sing Helena in a production of Purcell’s Fairy Queen staged by Josette Bushell-Mingo and conducted by Francesco Corti (Drottningholm).

Her discography includes Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, (with Le Banquet Céleste and Damien Guillon), Rameau's Dardanus and Castor et Pollux, a DVD of Lully's Atys, a recital disc Bien que l'Amour (for William Christie), and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice under Laurence Equilbey.

(2022_23. Please only use this biography.)