Nov 9, 2008

Dessay, between Paris and NY





Several years ago, Natalie Dessay embarked on a video journey with Esti, who films her at chosen moments of her life, and releases a documentary once a year or so. So far, the most interesting opus of the series is undoubtedly when she filmed Dessay's vocal chords operations in 2002.

Because Natalie Dessay is French, those documentaries have a limited exposure outside of this country, for obvious language barriers, which is a bit of a waste. Anyway, the latest episode aired several days ago on French Television (France 2), and was a good recap of Dessay's 2007-08 season (beginning with the opening of the Met season in NY as Lucia). At one point in the film, Esti filmed Dessay singing (aria from Haendel's Alcina) and dancing alongside a Paris Ballet étoile. This scene has a magnetic and organic aura that completely stands out - especially for me. All and all, a good way to familiarize with Natalie Dessay, if you understand french...


Rapidshare links (join with HJSplit): Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.

No comments: