Marie-Nicole Lemieux

Marie-Nicole Lemieux burst onto the scene in 2000 when she became the first Canadian to win the Queen Fabiola and Lied Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. It was the start of an international career that has led her to the world’s most famous stages: La Scala, Covent Garden, l’Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Capitole de Toulouse, la Monnaie in Brussels, the Staatsoper in Berlin, Munich and Vienna, Zurich Opera, Theater an der Wien, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Liceu in Barcelona, Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Montreal Opera and more.

Her powerful voice, superb sense of melodic line and faultless virtuosity, along with an innate sense of nuance and drama, allows her to master a wide range of roles and repertories. She has been particularly active in Baroque music (Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Ariodante, Solomon, Theodora among others). The evolution of her voice soon allowed her to take on 19^th-century grand opéra (Les Troyens, Samson et Dalila) French opera including Pelléas et Mélisande, Rossini (Guillaume Tell, Tancredi, L’Italiana in Algeri) and Verdi (Mrs Quickly in Falstaff, Azucena in Il trovatore, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera).

Alongside her stage career, Marie-Nicole Lemieux has sung the great symphonic repertoire with prestigious orchestras (including the New York Philarmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France and Orchestre National de France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Smphonique de Montréal, les Violons du Roy, and Orchestre Métropolitain), under the direction of renowned conductors such as: Bernard Haitink, Paavo Järvi, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Myung-Whun Chung, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Franck, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Michel Plasson, Michael Schonwandt, Pinchas Steinberg, and Pinchas Zukerman.

She is an acclaimed recital artist with an exceptional vocal palette, nurturing a special talent for French and Russian songs, as well as German lieder. Most recently, she has been heard in Falstaff in London, Vienna, Paris, Milan, and Toronto, Il Trittico (Zia Principessa and Zita) at the Theater an der Wien, L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella) and Tancredi at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Madama Butterfly (Suzuki) at Barcelona’s Liceu and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Il trovatore (Azucena) alongside Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko in Salzburg, and with Roberto Alagna at the Chorégies d'Orange, Samson et Dalila at l’Opéra de Montréal. In concert, she has sung Verdi’s Requiem (Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Tonhalle in Zurich and the Philharmonie de Paris) and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Orchestre de Radio France. She has also completed an extensive European tour with pianist Roger Vignoles (Venice, Rome, Vienna, Zurich, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid and Bilbao).

Future projects include Il trovatore in Madrid, Falstaff at Covent Garden and the Staatsoper in Vienna, Madama Butterfly in Orange, Enescu’s Œdipe at Covent Garden, Un Ballo in maschera in Zurich, Les Troyens with the Orchestre de Strasbourg, Carmen and Samson et Dalila in concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Jephta at the Opéra de Paris, and Pelléas et Mélisande and Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux is a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and a member of the Order of Canada and of the Order of the Pléiade. She also has a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Université du Québec in Chicoutimi.