Annick Massis

Acclaimed worldwide as one of the greatest sopranos and one of the most versatile singers of our time, Annick Massis has appeared in celebrated productions in the most prestigious opera houses in Europe, including Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Switzerland’s Grand Théâtre de Genève and Opernhaus Zürich, the famed Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, and Brussels’ La Monnaie. In the United States, Miss Massis has sung at the illustrious Metropolian Opera and in Avery Fisher Hall in New York, at the Pittsburgh Opera, and in Washington, D.C. In her native France, she has taken part in triumphant performances in all of the most important houses, including the Opéra Bastille, the Palais Garnier, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; the Capitole de Toulouse the Opéras of Marseille, Montpellier, and Nice. Miss Massis has also appeared on many of the most influential Italian stages, including those of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Venice’s Teatro Malibran and Teatro de la Fenice, Florence’s Teatro Comunale, Turin’s Teatro Regio, and in prominent houses in Rome, Naples, Trieste, and Cagliari.

In addition to singing in Europe’s greatest opera houses, Miss Massis has also appeared at many of Europe’s most important and artistically-rewarding festivals, including Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival, the long-celebrated Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence), the renowned Salzburg Festival, the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro, and most recently at the Arena di Verona and the bath of Caracalla .

During the course of her career to date, Miss Massis has enjoyed opportunities to work with many of the world’s most respected conductors, including Alberto Zedda, Richard Bonynge, William Christie, Trevor Pinnock, Ivor Bolton, Marc Minkowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Georges Prêtre, Ottavio Dantone, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Oren, Eve Queler, Marcello Viotti, and James Levine... She has also collaborated with celebrated stage directors such as Pier Luigi Pizzi,David McVicar and Grahm Vick...

Miss Massis has performed many of the greatest soprano roles in the French repertory, singing roles by Berlioz, Halévy, and Debussy, among many other composers, in her musical journeys ranging from Rameau to Poulenc. Many of her portrayals of French Romantic heroines are widely considered models of the genre. She also remains highly respected for her gallery of Mozart heroines. Perhaps most significantly, Miss Massis has assumed the mantels of Callas, Gencer, Sutherland, Sills, and Caballé, redefining for many audiences the art of bel canto by rejuvenating some of the greatest coloratura roles of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, as well as Verdi and Meyerbeer.

Among Miss Massis’ broad spectrum of operatic roles, special mention should be made of a number of memorable interpretations: Händel’s Semele and Almirena (Rinaldo); Mozart’s Konstanze (Die Entführung aus den Serail), Contessa d’Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), and Giunia (Lucio Silla); Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes and La Folie (Platée); Thomas’ Philine (Mignon) and Ophélie (Hamlet); Meyerbeer’s Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) and Margherita d’Anjou; Bizet’s Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de Perles); Gounod’s Juliette; Princess Eudoxie in Halévy’s La Juive; Teresa in Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini; the heroines of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, I Puritani, and La Sonnambula; Rossini’s Amenaide (Tancredi), Matilde di Shabran, Comtesse Adèle (Le Comte Ory), and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in both Rossini’s original Italian version and the French version adjusted to a considerably higher tessitura for coloratura soprano; Verdi’s Violetta (La Traviata) and Gilda (Rigoletto); Donizetti’s Marie (La Fille du Régiment) and Maria di Rohan, and Lucia di Lammermoor, which Miss Massis has sung in more than ten productions throughout the world.

Building upon her success on the operatic stage, Miss Massis is also devoted to performing French mélodies and German Lieder, especially the songs of Fauré, Poulenc, Pauline Viardot, Ravel, Debussy, Berlioz, and Richard Strauss.

Miss Massis’ repertory also includes liturgical and concert works ranging from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s Requiem, Great Mass in C-minor, and Exultate, Jubilate to Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust and the twentieth-century works of Debussy (La Chute de la Maison Usher and Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien) and Poulenc (Gloria and Stabat Mater).

Miss Massis has been recognized with many international distinctions owing to the beauty of her voice, the excellence of her technique, and the power of her interpretations. In Italy, she was awarded the pretigious La Siola d’Oro(awarded in 2007 in memory of Lina Pagliughi to Dame Joan Sutherland) in acknowledgement of critical response to her contributions to French and Italian bel canto. Miss Massis’ native France celebrated her accomplishments by awarding her one of the most important distinctions bestowed upon artists throughout the world, the medal of the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.

During the 2008-2009 season her concert appearances included performances of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges under Simon Rattle that were recorded for later release by EMI as well as a concert with Concerto Köln in a new programme of Baroque arias at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In December 2008 she sang the role of Violetta La Traviata for the first time in Italy in a production by Franco Zeffirelli conducted by Daniel Oren, after which she scored a triumph in the four female roles of Les Contes d’Hoffman in Nice and as Gilda Rigoletto in Ancona; she then returned to La Scala for the role of la Comtesse de Folleville Il Viaggio a Reims in a production by Luca Ronconi. She ended the season with a revival of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Arena di Verona, where she enjoyed great critical and popular success.

Annick Massis will take on a wide range of roles and new productions in the 2009 – 2010 season, including revivals of La Juive at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam under Carlo Rizzi (September) and at the Opera of Tel Aviv under Daniel Oren (April). This season will also be marked by a series of recitals, the first of which will be given at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Annick Massis then returns to the Teatro Regio in Turin for the role of Ilia Idomeneo, after which she will sing in La sonnambula in Las Palmas and in a concert version of Les pêcheurs de perles in Moscow before returning to the Rome Opera in Massenet’s Manon.