Natalie Dessay: De l'Opéra à la chanson

This new collection showcasing 20 years of recordings from this most versatile of artists including classical, opera and songs from musicals - includes previously unreleased track "Bebe".

Natalie Dessay defies categorisation. Over a 20-year career the multi-faceted soprano has risen to the most diverse challenges, brilliantly fleshing out the great Romantic coloratura roles, savouring the delights of the Baroque, and moving with equal aplomb from comic opera to bel canto and from French art song to French (and Brazilian) pop song. An uncommonly human Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, she has sparkled lovingly in Lakmé and descended into harrowing madness as Ophélie and Lucia di Lammermoor; and just as she has brought Manon to vivid life, she has experienced all Violetta's passion and pain in La traviata.

With her shining eyes, Dessay is a tiny slip of woman who radiates charisma. She has often taken a stand against operatic convention and diva clichés, impudently daring to talk about the trials of her profession, including stagefright and the frantic demands of juggling the roles of star, woman and mother. Then there is her recurring frustration at the essential mismatch between a dramatic temperament suited to the great tragic heroines and a voice predisposed to the roles of singing doll or willing victim. But though her voice has always been light, it has never been lacking in juice, and the purity of her top notes - cleaving like daggers - her quicksilver virtuosity, and her supreme musicianship have given her the power to cast an irresistible spell.

It took years for her to accept herself for what she had always been. In 1997, when she told an interviewer that "There is more to life than top notes", people thought she was being precious; she was in fact expressing profound disquiet. Over the course of a career that imposed operations on her vocal cords in 2003 and 2005, Dessay has come to the conclusion that "the interplay of physiological skills and characterisation is as about as thrilling as something can get." A perfectionist who is also prone to impulse, this great French singer has brought something new to her roles through her still unfulfilled passion for the straight theatre, an art form that remains a defining force for her: it was, after all, as a student actress that she first discovered her talent as a singer.

She has now succeeded in resolving the dichotomies within her, uniting her personality and her voice by choosing to move away from opera. Since 2013 she has reinvented herself with recitals of French art song (notably Debussy with the pianist Philippe Cassard), with popular song and musicals (above all in her collaboration with the pianist and composer Michel Legrand), and even with Brazilian music (in the company of three sisters-under-the-skin, the singers Helena Noguerra and Agnès Jaoui and the guitarist Liat Cohen). Her commitment to each genre has been characteristically unreserved. Of one thing we can be sure: Natalie Dessay, in all her infinite artistic variety, has many more delicious surprises in store.