French soprano Norah Amsellem has been engaged by leading opera companies around the world including the Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de ParisandTeatro alla Scala and has been praised for her dramatic intensity and soaring vocal technique. She is an accomplished concert artist, including collaborations with renowned conductors including James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim and George Prêtre.

In the 2011 –2012 season, Ms. Amsellem returns to Seattle Opera as Michaëla in Carmen, a role she has performed at Covent Garden and in her debuts at Opéra National de Paris and The Metropolitan Opera with Placido Domingo and Maestro James Levine. Ms. Amsellem will also be heard at Teatro Regio di Torino as Musetta in La bohèmewhich she has performed with San Francisco Opera.

Ms. Amsellem began the 2010 –2011 season in her role and company debut as Desdemona in Otello with Opera Company of Philadelphia.Further performances included Violetta in La traviata in Bari and Genoa, Italy and a return to the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Manon alongside Rolando Villazon. In the 2009 –2010 season, Ms. Amsellem was heard in performances of Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dreamin Bari and Reggio Emilia, as well as performances of Gilda in Rigolettoin Palermo and Wiesbaden, Germany. Later in the season, she was heard as Violetta with Deutsche Oper Berlin, made her debut in Seville, Spain as Liu in Turandot, and was heard as Donna Anna in Don Giovanniat the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Ms. Amsellem’s operatic repertoire includes a core of leading roles that she has made entirely her own. Prominent among these is Violetta,which she has sungatthe Vienna State Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Covent Garden, Teatro Municipal de Santiagoand Bologna’s Teatro Comunale. She has also distinguished herself as Liù, which she has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro di San Carlo, and with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale under Zubin Mehta, both in Florence and on tour in Japan.

Other roles with which she has been firmly identified are Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles, which she sang with San Francisco Operaand Washington National Opera, and Gilda in Rigoletto, which she sang at the Metropolitan Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, as well as in Avignon and Toulouse. She sang Micaëla in Carmenat CoventGarden and in her debuts at Opéra National de Paris and at the Metropolitan Opera with Plácido Domingo under the baton of James Levine for the opening of the 1997–1998 season.

Other highlights of Ms. Amsellem’s careerinclude Mimì in La bohème with Teatro Real, Madrid,Teatro Maggio Musicale di Firenze, Palm Beach Opera, and in concert with the Atlanta Symphony, which was recorded for the Telarc label.Additional roles include the Countess in Le nozze di Figarowith Opera Colorado and at Glyndebourne, Elvira in I puritani for Seattle Operaand both Norina in Don Pasqualeand the title role in Roméo et Juliette in Bordeaux.

As a concert artist, Ms. Amsellem has sung Fauré’s Requiemunder Georges Prêtre at the Musikverein in Vienna; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9with Leonard Slatkin and Seiji Ozawa; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4in Lyon and with l’Orchestre National de France, among many others. She was heard with the Orquestra Sinfónica de Barcelona in Ravel’s Shéhérezadeand as Mathilde in Guillaume Tell with Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano.Early in her career, Ms. Amsellem was the recipient of several international prizes and was a member of the prestigiousMetropolitan OperaLindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Her EMI recording of Ravel’s Les Cantates de Romeunder Michel Plasson was awarded the Prize of the Académie Charles Crosand in2004, Claves Records released Ms. Amsellem’s solo recording of “Mélodies Françaises” with pianist Dalton Baldwin. She has also recorded a disc of Verdi Songs with pianist Lydia Jardon, which was released on the Ar Re-Se label.