Anne-Catherine Gillet was born in Belgium. At a very young age, she was spotted by the management of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, who offered her a position amongst their resident singers, enabling her to take on her earliest operatic roles. Her career soon unfolded in prestigious Opera houses, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse invited her for many important roles, Sir John Eliot Gardiner chose her to sing Laoula in Chabrier’s L’Étoile at the Opernhaus Zürich and the Opéra Comique in Paris, she then made her debut at the Paris National Opera.
During her first years, she sang: Sophie (Werther) in Liège, Toulon, Lyon and the Opéra Bastille, Musetta (La Bohème) in Liège, Brussels, Geneva and Bordeaux, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) in Toulouse, Sœur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Zdenka (Arabella) in Toulouse and Liège. She then went on to expand her repertoire with notable appearances as Despina (Così fan Tutte), at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Tourcoing, Toulouse and at the Palais Garnier in Paris, or Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), in Nice, Toulouse and Liège. She enjoyed outstanding success as Micaëla at the Opéra Comique, in Marseille and Beijing. She also took one the great Baroque roles: Poppea, under the direction of Christophe Rousset in Toulouse and Ottavio Dantone in Como and Brescia, Aricie in Toulouse and at the Paris Opera with Emmanuelle Haïm.
Anne-Catherine Gillet cultivates a special affection for the French 19th century repertoire, debuting in the roles of Cendrillon by Massenet at La Monnaie, Juliette in Tours, Manon in Lausanne and Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de perles) in Liège and at the Angers-Nantes Opera. The 20th century repertoire offers her major roles, such as Mélisande in Liège, the title rolesin L’Héritière and Colombe by Jean-Michel Damase in Marseille, The Governess (The Turn of the Screw) in Frankfurt and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), for which she is hailed as one of her generation’s finest interpreter.
She worked with renowed conductors such as Alain Altinoglu, Marco Armiliato, P. Arrivabeni, Jesús López Cobos, Patrick Davin, John Eliot Gardiner, Laurent Gendre, Emmanuelle Haïm, Philippe Jordan, Jiří Kout, Jacques Lacombe, Louis Langrée, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Günter Neuhold, Kazushi Ōno, Jean-Yves Ossonce, Antonio Pappano, Evelino Pido, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Carlo Rizzi, Marc Soustrot, Alberto Zedda…
Her discography includes L’Aiglon by Ibert and Honegger conducted by Kent Nagano and released by Decca in 2016, a CD released in october 2011 with works of Barber-Berlioz-Britten (AEON/ ref. AECD 1113), she appears in DVDs of Carmen (J. E. Gardiner – FraMusica 2009) and Werther at the Opéra Bastille (M. Plasson – Decca 2010).
Recent highlights include Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) at the Palais Garnier, Oscar (Un Ballo in maschera) at the Chorégies d’Orange, Ilia (Idomeneo) in Frankurt, Gilda (Rigoletto) at La Monnaie and at the Bolshoi, Manon in Lausanne and Monte-Carlo, Juliette in Monte-Carlo, the title role of L’Aiglon with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Leila (Les Pêcheurs de perles) in Liège, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) in Liège, Nice and Marseille, Adina (L’Elisir d’amore) and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Norina (Don Pasquale) in Brussels, Hero (Béatrice et Benedict) at La Monnaie and at the Glyndebourne Festival, Minerva (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Caroline (Die Fledermaus) in Marseille, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) in Lausanne, Gabrielle (La Vie parisienne) in Bordeaux, Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Oviedo and Strasbourg, Angèle (Le Domino noir) in Liège and at the Opéra Comique, Marguerite (Faust) in Liège and Köln, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Marseille, Suzanne (Madame Favart by Offenbach) and Jacqueline (Fortunio) at the Opéra Comique and in Nancy, Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito) in Barcelona, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) in Toulouse, La Voix Humaine and Point d’orgue by Thierry Escaich in Bordeaux, Micaëla (Carmen) in Luxembourg and Marguerite (Faust) at the Opéra de Québec.
In concert, she sang Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher in Liège, Monte-Carlo, Toulouse and Paris, Monsieur Beaucaire by Messager at Radio France (Paris), La Dame de Monte-Carlo in Monaco, Kassya by Delibes at the Radio-France Festival in Montpellier and La Fille de Madame Angot au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées et Phryné at the Opéra Comique.
Among her upcoming projects, let us mention, La Vie Parisienne in Liège and Toulouse, Dialogues des Carmélites in Bordeaux, Les Pêcheurs de perles in Toulouse, La Veuve joyeuse in Marseille, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges/L’Heure espagnole in Avignon and Tours and Carmen in Liège… In concert she will sing Jacques Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde in London, Les Paladins in Versailles with La Chapelle harmonique and César Franck’s Les Béatitudes with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. She will also perform concerts and recitals with the OSE! Orchestra and the Oxalys Ensemble.
August 2022
This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.