Biography English

Natalia Labourdette was born in Madrid, Spain, and has a career that spans from baroque to contemporary music. She is currently a member of the Ensemble at Aalto Musiktheater Essen (Germany), and during the 2025/26 season she will embody the roles of Gilda (Rigoletto), Franziska (Wiener Blut), Cunegonde (Candide), and Ännchen (Der Freischütz). She will also perform as Frasquita (Carmen) at the Teatro Real in Madrid and 2nd Niece (Peter Grimes) at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London.

Her repertoire includes roles such as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), Pamina and First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Norina (Don Pasquale), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Nannetta (Falstaff), Le Feu/La Princesse/Le Rossignol (L'enfant et les Sortilèges), Anna Reich (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Charlotte (Der Diktator), Bubikopf (Der Kaiser von Atlantis), Eurydice (Orphée), and Valletto (L'incoronazione di Poppea), among others.

Labourdette has also performed in world premieres of contemporary operas, such as Tejas Verdes by Jesús Torres at the Teatro Real in Madrid (2025), Don Juan no existe by Helena Cánovas at the Festival Castell de Peralada (2024), La Mujer Tigre by Manuel Busto at the Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla (2022), and Lieder von Vertreibung und Nimmerwiederkehr by Bernhard Gander at the Munich Biennale and Deutsche Oper Berlin (2022). Additionally, she participated in the historical revival of the intermezzi Grilletta e Porsugnacco by J. A. Hasse at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid (2023) and the opera Didone Abbandonata by B. Galuppi for the cycle "Universo Barroco" at the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical (2025).

Since her debut in 2016, Labourdette has performed at renowned venues such as the Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Festival Castell de Peralada, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Ópera de Tenerife, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Leipzig, Theater Dortmund, Aalto Musiktheater Essen, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Dante Alighieri di Ravenna, Comunale di Ferrara, and Municipale di Piacenza. She has collaborated with esteemed conductors like Jordi Savall, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Frizza, Corrado Rovaris, Michele Mariotti, Iván López-Reynoso, Nicola Luisotti, Elda Laro, Pedro Halffter, Donato Renzetti, Miquel Ortega, Jordi Francés, and Patrick Hahn. She has also worked with directors such as by Deborah Warner, Emilio Sagi, Calixto Bieito, Barbara Lluch, Stefan Herheim, David McVicar, Leo Nucci, Marco Gandini, Michal Znaniecki, Frank Hilbrich, and Rafael R. Villalobos.

Her passion for art song has led her to participate in various Lied festivals. She has been invited to events such as LIFE Victoria Barcelona (2017, 2018, 2023), Schubertiadas de Vilabertrán (2018), Valdegovía (2019), and Barcelona (2020). In 2022, she released her debut album with GENUIN Classics, petite MORT, alongside pianist Victoria Guerrero. The duo has toured Spain with this work, performing at venues like Espacio Turina in Sevilla and Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao.

Since 2021, Labourdette has been part of the project L’Andalousie au coeur, a musical reinterpretation of Pauline Viardot’s Spanish works, alongside mezzo-soprano Helena Ressurreição and pianist Francisco Soriano. This project has been presented at venues such as the Opéra Comique in Paris, Fundación Juan March in Madrid, and the Festival de Música Española de Cádiz. A CD recording was released in 2023 by Odradek.

She has also performed symphonic repertoire with various orchestras, including the Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Orquesta de Córdoba, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, and the Zahir Ensemble. Her performances have included works such as Sieben frühe Lieder (A. Berg), Les Illuminations (B. Britten), Cantata para América Mágica (A. Ginastera), Missa Solemnis (W. A. Mozart), Psalm 150 (A. Bruckner), Petite Messe Solennelle (G. Rossini), Symphony No. 2 (G. Mahler), Mass No. 3 (F. Schubert), and Requiem (G. Fauré). 

She was awarded the 2022-2023 Catalonian Operatic Critics' Circle ‘Rising Star’ Award for her performance as Valletto in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in July 2023. Her singing has been recognized with prizes in several international competitions, including First Prize at the IV Compostela Lírica (2021), First Prize and Audience Prize at the XIV Nuevas Voces de Sevilla (2017), Second Prize at Ciudad de Logroño (2016), and the CIA Opera São Paulo Prize at the Riccardo Zandonai competition (2016). She also won First Prize in the Permanent National Competition of Young Musical Talents of Spain (2015) and was awarded the Bayreuth Scholarship by the Wagnerian Association of Berlin-Brandenburg in 2015. 

Natalia studied violin in her native city of Madrid and voice at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Professor Enrico Facini. She was a member of the Opera Studio of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons. She has participated in masterclasses with Dolora Zajick, Helen Donath, Edith Wiens, Umberto Finazzi, and Nicola Beller Carbone, among others.