Régine Crespin studied at the Paris conservatory and made her début at Mulhouse as Else in Wagner's Lohengrin. Only a few moths later she was at the Paris Opera house in the same rôle.
In addition to the French repertoire, her exemplary command of German led to engagements for two major Wagner r├┤les - Kundry in Parsifal at Bayreuth, in 1958, and Sieglinde in Die Walk├╝re in 1961.
An extremely wide repertoire led her to most of the world's great opera houses. She sang Madame Lidoine in the Paris première of Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmelites.
With the conductor Solti she recorded the roles of the Marschallin (R.Strauss’ Rosenkavalier) and Sieglinde. Her performances of Ravel's Sheherazade and Berlioz's Nuits d’été, with Ansermet are among the finest ever recorded on disc.
Towards the end of her career she turned from the soprano repertoire to sing more mezzo soprano character parts, and her final stage performance was as the Countess in R.StraussΓÇÖ The Queen of Spades in Paris in 1989.
She had a noble stage presence and an expressive clarity of diction. Her soft, high, legato phrases were particularly beautiful.
