Lea Desandre Mezzo-soprano

French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre studied in Venice with Sara Mingardo and then joined William Christie’s Jardin des Voix in 2015. She was awarded Vocal Discovery at the Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2017. The same year, she made her debut in the title role of Alcione at the Opéra Comique and returned the following season for Et in Arcadie ego.

She sang at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in the summer 2017 in Erismena (Flerida) and made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2018 in L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Valletto/Amore). She has been returning to Salzburg ever since: Orphée aux Enfers (Vénus) and La Morte d’Abel (Abel) in 2019, Cosi fan tutte (Despina) in 2020 & 2021.

Other roles have included Urbain (Les Huguenots) at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Idamante (Idomeneo) at Staatsoper Berlin, Rosina (The Barber of Seville) at Opéra de Rouen, Annio (La clemenza di Tito) at the Salzburg Festival, Amour (Orphée) and High Priestess of Diana / a female sailor / a huntress (Hippolyte et Aricie) at Opéra Comique.

She was nominated in the Lyrical Artist of the Year category at the Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2021, and then went on to perform Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Aix‑en‑Provence Festival, the Zurich Opera, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona and the Opéra de Lausanne. During the 2022/23 season, she won the Opus Klassik Award “Singer of the Year” and sang, among others, Cherubino in Ravenna, Annio in Liège and Hamburg and Dido (Didon et Énée) in Madrid and Compiègne.

Concert and recital performances took her to the Wigmore Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmoniker, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Sydney Opera House, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie de Paris and the Opéra de Versailles.

Lea Desandre is an exclusive recording artist with Erato / Warner Classics, where her last album “Eternal Heaven” was released. Her album “Amazone” (2021) won many awards.

At the Paris Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), 2022