Sylvie Valayre (born 1956, Paris) is a French operatic soprano known for her versatile interpretations of lyric, spinto, and dramatic coloratura soprano parts. She sings grueling roles like Abigaille, Lady Macbeth or Turandot as well as lighter pieces like Giordano's Maddalena, Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), or Verdi's Desdemona at major opera houses around the world.

Born in Paris, she graduated at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of Christiane Eda-Pierre and Régine Crespin. She attended master classes of Cathy Berberian, Galina Vishnevskaya, Gino Bechi, Paul von Schilawsky in Florence and Montpellier, Giuseppe Di Stefano, who later chose her to perform a concert with him at Théâtre du Châtelet. Later, she undertook advanced studies with tenor Sergio Tedesco and with mezzo-soprano Catherine Green.

She began her career in 1984 with a play about Maria Malibran at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris, performing excerpts from operas like Semiramide and Norma (also available as DVD). Soon after, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya asked her to perform the title role in their production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride at the Rome Opera.

In 1987, she sang her first Mozart opera, performing the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. Other roles during this stage of her career included Mimi in La Bohème, Tosca in Tosca, Magda in La rondine, Violetta in La traviata, Norma in Norma, Leonore in Fidelio, Manon in Manon Lescaut, Thaïs in Thaïs, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Liù in Turandot, the Infante in Der Zwerg (or The Infante's Birthday) by Zemlinsky, La Voix humaine by Poulenc and more. In 1994, she was performing in major Italian houses in works like La Voix humaine (Trieste, Genova, Naples), Cavalleria rusticana (Trieste, Bologna), L'heure espagnole and Il segreto di Susanna (Opera of Trieste).

In 1995, in a production touring through the Netherlands, she debuted in the part of Lady Macbeth, later one of her signature parts.

In 1996, with the production of Venice's La Fenice, she made her debut in Warsaw in the part of Elisabetta in Don Carlo. A few months later followed her debuts in Nabucco at Covent Garden Opera, Madama Butterfly in Naples and Venice (La Fenice) and in Don Carlo at Royal Albert Hall in London.

In 1997, Milan invited her onto the famous stage of La Scala to perform Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Her debut in Milan was soon followed by other debuts at other famous opera houses: Madama Butterfly at San Francisco Opera, Verdi's Jerusalem at Carnegie Hall in New York, Nabucco in Zürich with Nello Santi as well as Nabucco, Aida and Tosca at the famous Arena di Verona, Macbeth in Paris and Tosca in Berlin. Aida in Munich followed and, in 2000, her first performances at the Metropolitan Opera in Madama Butterfly. Later in 2000 Manon Lescaut at Opera Pacific, Ernani at the Madrid Opera, Aida in Macerata, Tosca in Paris and Tokyo, La Gioconda at Carnegie Hall and Macbeth in Berlin.

The year 2001 brought her to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Tosca, to Madrid with Verdi's Requiem, to Brussels (Théâtre de la Monnaie) with Antonio Pappano and Zürich with Macbeth, to Berlin in the title part of Aida and to Macerata with Norma. ...

Source: Article "Sylvie Valayre" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.