It was in Brittany, in Rennes, that the future great Mezzo Soprano Stéphanie d'Oustrac was born, on June 27, 1919... shh

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Her taste for music may have come from her illustrious ancestry, since Stéphanie is the great-grandniece of composers Francis Poulenc and Jacques de La Presle. She regularly pays tribute to them, whether by performing "La voix humaine" by F. Poulenc or "Nocturne" and "Dedette" by J. de la Presle.

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Stéphanie sang from a very young age in the Maîtrise de Bretagne directed by Jean-Michel Noël. As a teenager, she was admitted to the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Rennes. Her first vocation was comedy, theater, but the film "Yentl" with Barbra Streisand opened her eyes by showing him that singing and comedy could be linked. However, it was above all a recital by the mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza that deviated her from her initial idea and naturally led her to the Opera where all her talents could finally be expressed.

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After graduating from high school, she joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon. In 1998, she won first prize.

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One of the most beautiful encounters of her career was with William Christie (whom she would often meet on her way) who hired her at the Baroque Academy of Ambronay for the role of Medea in Le Thésée Lully.

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From 1998 to 2002, she played many roles. 

Debuting with the title role of Psyche, for which she wore two hats: actress and opera singer, she perfected her acting and her voice.

This was followed by other roles, such as Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Paladins, Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée, Lully's Armide et Atys, La Périchole, La Belle Hélène, etc.

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Stéphanie was for a time, mainly associated with the Baroque Opera, but her talent allowed her to look elsewhere and to impose herself in productions such as: Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Les Arts Florissants, Chabrier's L'Etoile, Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Bizet's Carmen in Lille in 2010 (a turning point in her career), Ravel's L'heure espagnole,  Handel's Theodora, Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and Mozart's La Clémence di Titus.

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Stéphanie likes to alternate baroque (or not) tragic heroines with more playful scores.
A true tragedian, she also flourished in lighter roles, moving from Carmen (eponymous role) to Sesto (The Clemency of Titus), from Rosina (The Barber of Seville) to Charlotte (Werther), from Phèdre (Hippolyte et Aricie) to Cassandre (Les Troyens), or more recently from La Périchole to Maria Stuarda, from Mignon to Clytemnestra (Iphigénie en Aulide) and many roles are to come like Agrippina. Handel, for example.

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Her vocal performances are regularly praised by critics, as are her interpretations and her involvement in her roles (a tear can flow for an Armide, a Cybèle in Atys or an Elle in La Voix Humaine). We don't even mention her very appreciable peculiarity: her perfect diction which makes the works even more interesting and intense. Stephanie, although she sings in several languages, loves our beautiful French language and excels at it.

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Her talent has led him to travel the world to perform in operas, but also for recitals with, among others, her long-time accomplice/pianist Pascal Jourdan or during concerts with the Amarillis ensemble. A new adventure was also born with Vincent Dumestre and the Poème Harmonique through the show Mon amant de Saint Jean. She can be found in Russia, the United States, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England (very present at the Glyndebourne festival where she is a regular there), as well as in Japan... and of course in France.

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It should be noted that Stéphanie has received several prizes or awards: the Bernac Prize in 1999, in 2000 she won the Francophone Radio competition, a music victory "Revelation Opera Artist of the Year" in 2002, the Gramophone Editor's Choice for Haydn's CD (2010).... she was nominated in 2022 at the International Opera Awards and received jointly with Laurent Pelly an award for Production of the Year (with Voix Humaine at Glyndebourne)

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