Since graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she studied with Christiane Eda-Pierre, Gabriel Bacquier, and Régine Crespin, and later in Italy with Sergio Tedesco, Sylvie Valayre has performed on some of the world’s most prestigious opera stages.
She has sung leading roles from the lyric and later dramatic soprano repertoire: Nabucco at Covent Garden, La Gioconda and Salome at La Scala in Milan, Madama Butterfly at the San Carlo in Naples, in San Francisco, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in Tokyo under the baton of Myung-Whun Chung; Hélène in Jerusalem at Carnegie Hall; Nabucco, Aida, and Tosca at the Verona Arena; Macbeth in Paris, then Cagliari and Turin; Salome in Washington, Tokyo, and Athens (with the Vienna Philharmonic); Maddalena in Andrea Chénier alongside Plácido Domingo (conducted by James Levine); as well as Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, Elektra in Madrid conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Christian Thielemann, Turandot in Berlin, and Aida in Rome under the direction of Plácido Domingo.
She has also performed Macbeth in Dresden, Turandot in Budapest, at the Staatsoper in Berlin, and in Washington, Aida in Leipzig, Tosca in San Diego, and Il Tabarro (as Giorgetta) at the Paris National Opera, in addition to numerous concerts in Paris and in Australia.
Specialty: Italian opera