
"Und Lea Desandre als Despina, die Kammerzofe mit pfeffriger Zunge, ist einfach Spitze: quecksilbrig flott ihr Sopran, pointiert das Spiel – ihr Solo mit Schneebesen und Soßentiegel zündet Hunderte Lacher im Saal – und zugleich hintersinnig." FAZ
French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre was 20 when she was awarded a place on William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix Academy. In 2017 she was named Vocal Disovery at the Victoires de la Musique Classique Awards. She studied with Sara Mingardo in Venice and can also look back on a 12-year period of training as a ballet dancer.
Since 2015 Lea Desandre has been acclaimed in various roles, including Urbain (Les Huguenots), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Sesto (Giulio Cesare), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Messaggera (L’Orfeo), Flerida in Cavalli’s Erismena and the title role in Marais’ Alcione.
In 2018 she delighted her audiences at the Paris Opéra Comique in a fully-staged one-woman show, Et in Arcadia ego, with music by Rameau.
She made her Salzburg Festival debut at Whitsun 2018 in Offenbach’s La Périchole under Marc Minkowski, returning that same summer as Amore and Valletto (L’incoronazione di Poppea) under Christie/Lawers and at Whitsun 2019 for Caldara’s oratorio La morte d’Abel and for the gala concert Farinelli & Friends with Cecilia Bartoli. In the summer 2019 she was heard as Vénus in Orphée aux enfers under Mazzola/Kosky and for the 100 years of the Festival, she made her debuts as Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) under Mallwitz/Loy.
Concert appearances and song recitals have taken her to London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Philharmonie de Paris, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Sydney Opera House, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Shanghai Symphony Hall ...
As a committed chamber recitalist she also appears regularly with the lutenist Thomas Dunford and his Jupiter ensemble. In addition to the above-named conductors, she has also worked with John Eliot Gardiner, Louis Langrée, Raphaël Pichon, Jordi Savall, Emmanuelle Haïm, Enrique Mazzola and Leonardo García Alarcón.
Lea Desandre’s CDs include Barricades with Jean Rondeau, Vivaldi with the Jupiter ensemble, Handel: Italian Cantatas with Sabine Devieilhe, Berenice, che fai? with Opera Fuoco and Cities with Thibault Cauvin.
Plans for 2020/21 include Hippolyte et Aricie at the Opéra Comique, Idamante (Idomeneo) at the Berlin State Opera, L’Amour (Orphée et Eurydice) in Versailles, Annio (La Clemenza di Tito) at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. A concert tour celebrating the release of her first solo album, Amazones (Erato), will take her and the Jupiter ensemble to the Philharmonie de Paris, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere. She will also be heard as Tamiri in a concert performance of Il re pastore at the Salzburg Mozartwoche Festival.
BACRI
Cosi Fanciulli – Dorabella
BLOW
Venus and Adonis- Venus
BELLINI
I Capuleti ei Montecchi - Roméo
CAVALLI
Erismena – Flerida
CHABRIER
L’étoile – Lazuli
CHARPENTIER
Actéon - Junon
DEBUSSY
Pelléas et Mélisande - Mélisande
GOUNOD
Roméo et Juliette – Stéphano
Faust – Siebel
GLUCK
Orphée et Euridice – Orphée, Amour
HANDEL
Ariodante – Ariodante
Giulio Cesare – Sesto, Cleopatra
Alcina – Ruggiero
MARAIS
Alcione – Alcione
MASSENET
Cendrillon - Cendrillon, Le Prince
Chérubin - Chérubin
MEYERBEER
Les Huguenots - Urbain
MONTEVERDI
L’Incoronazione di Poppea – Valletto, Amore
Orfeo – Messaggiera, Speranza, Proserpina
MOZART
Le Nozze di Figaro – Cherubino
La Clemenza di Tito – Annio
Idomeneo - Idamante
La Finta Giardiniera – Don Ramiro
Don Giovanni – Zerlina
Cosi Fan Tutte – Despina
OFFENBACH
Les contes d’Hoffmann – Nicklausse
La Périchole – Mastrilla/Frasquinella
Orphée aux Enfers - Cupidon, Vénus
RAMEAU
Castor et Pollux - Télaïre
Hippolyte et Aricie - La Grande Prêtresse, la matelote, la chasseresse et une bergère
Les Surprises de l'Amour - Uranie
Les Fêtes d'Hébé - Iphise
Dardanus - Vénus
Zoroastre - Erinice
RAVEL
L’Enfant et les Sortilèges – L’enfant, l’écureuil
PURCELL
Fairy Queen – Sop
Dido and Aeneas – Dido
ROSSINI
Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Rosina
La Cenerentola – Cenerentola
VIVALDI
Il Tamerlano – Andronico
BERLIOZ
Roméo et Juliette - Mezzo Soprano
Les Nuits d'Eté
HANDEL
La Lucrezia
Armida Abbandonata
Giu nei Tartarei
Che vai pensando
Aminta e Fillide (Fillide)
HAYDN
Berenice che fai
MERULA
Canzonetta sopra alla nanna
MONTEVERDI
Lettera Amorosa
Lamento d'Arianna
Lamento della Ninfa
MOZART
Ch’io mi scordi di te
Chi sa, chi sa
Vado, ma dove ?
STROZZI
Eraclito Amorosa
Lagrime mie
BACH
Magnificat – Sop 2
Messe en si – Sop 2
HANDEL
Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno – Piacere
Dixit Dominus – Soprano 2
MONTEVERDI
Vespro della Beata Vergine - Sop
MOZART
Requiem – Alto
Messe en Ut - Sop 2
VIVALDI
Juditha Triumphans – Judith
In turbato mare irato
Sum in medio tempestatum
Longe mala