“I want to change my life,” she says to me. “I want to go into straight theatre.”
In September, Natalie will be in Toulouse to sing Massenet’s Manon. It may be her last appearance on the operatic stage.
“Yes, I think so. I did my real ‘debut’ in Toulouse, in the chorus. I had started off as an acting student. That was my real passion. That is my real passion. It’s just a detour of thirty-three years—to finally get back to my first goal. There’s nothing left for me to sing. I’ve done most of the roles I could do. I don’t want to play Juliette. At my age? Please! Or Lucia or Adina or anything else like that. That’s why I’m quitting. You have to love your repertoire. For a while I thought it was fun, but no. On to something else.”
Ms. Dessay is in the film “Becoming Traviata” which is being shown this weekend in San Francisco. Again from the article: “Director Philippe Béziat’s documentary, Becoming Traviata opens this Friday, June 14 in San Francsico at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema and in Berkeley at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas. The film’s “Violetta”, soprano Natalie Dessay will be at the Opera Plaza Cinema for an audience Q&A on Saturday, June 15 at the 7:00 screening and again on Sunday, June 16 at 2:00 pm.”
