The
Journey

Aude Extrémo is today among the most striking mezzo-sopranos of her generation. Her timbre — deep, dense, velvety — unfolds with equal ease in the great Wagnerian repertoire, in the most demanding Verdi roles and in French song, of which she is one of the most sought-after interpreters.

Trained at the Bordeaux Conservatoire, she joined the Atelier Lyrique of the Paris National Opera, where she built a remarkably solid technique and the dramatic instinct that would become her signature. Quickly noticed by the critics, she established herself on the French stages before making her mark internationally.

The Wagner years

Recent seasons have seen a leading Wagnerian voice come into its own. Her debut as Fricka (Die Walküre) at the Bordeaux National Opera and then at the Marseille Opera was greeted with enthusiasm, as was her Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at the Lorraine National Opera. She took on Erda (Siegfried) at Theater Dortmund and then Das Rheingold with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, confirming the natural authority of her lower register and the breadth of her projection.

Verdi, Berlioz, Bartók

Her first Azucena, in Louis Désiré's new production of Il Trovatore at the Marseille Opera under Michele Spotti, was unanimously celebrated as a dramatic high point. Her Judith (Bluebeard's Castle) at the Dijon Opera continues in the same vein: a mezzo able to combine declamatory power with the barest vulnerability.

Song & recital

In recital she explores a demanding repertoire — Berlioz, Duparc, Ravel, Mahler, Wagner — with an intelligence of the word and an attention to breath that recall the greatest singers of the French school. Les Nuits d'été, La Damnation de Faust and the Wesendonck Lieder are among her chosen territories.