About Teresa Desmarchelier

Born in Piacenza, Italy and residing in Australia, Teresa Desmarchelier is recognized as one of Australia’s leading Lyric Diction coaches.  Bi-lingual in Italian/English, she is fluent in French and Spanish and has a working knowledge of German.

A graduate of The University of Queensland majoring in Modern Languages and Fine Arts, her 30year career began as Italian/Spanish interpreter and translator for a major Australian bank; subsequently Italian tutor at the Institute of Modern Languages (University of Queensland), Professional Placement Co-ordinator at the Institute of Applied Linguistics (Queensland University of Technology) and as Senior Education Officer of the Queensland Art Gallery.

Currently Language & Lyric Diction Coach with Opera Queensland and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, Teresa also lectures in Italian and French Phonetics at the School of Music, University of Queensland. A visiting artist of The Royal College of Music, London, the Australian National Academy of Music and The Royal New Zealand National Singing School, she has also collaborated in Vocal Programs and Master Classes with Dame Joan Sutherland OM AC DBE, Margreta Elkins AM, Marilyn Richardson and Anna Sweeny AM.

In 1988 Teresa was engaged by the Queensland Conservatorium to take charge of the language training of voice students at undergraduate and post-graduate level.  In the teaching programs she has been fully involved in every aspect of the singers’ linguistic training – from classes, workshops, group and individual sessions to coaching for performance in the Conservatorium’s yearly opera productions, opera scenes and concerts.

Teresa’s lyric diction training skills are distinguished by her own knowledge of the singing process and by her deep understanding of the symbiotic relationship between voice, music and language, an understanding she attributes to her long and consistent collaboration with voice teachers, accompanists and chorus masters.

Since 1991, when she joined Opera Queensland as language and diction coach in Italian and French she has assisted professional singers in refining pronunciation and achieving textual expressiveness in performance.

A significant part of her duties has also been the language preparation of the Opera Queensland Chorus and the training of the company’s Young Artists in language acquisition, recitative and translation techniques.

In that stated capacity, Teresa has worked on the following operas:  Aida, Alcina, Andrea Chénier, Cavalleria Rusticana, Cosi´ Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, Gianni Schicchi, Giulio Cesare, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La Bohème, Tosca, I Pagliacci, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Tabarro, Il Trovatore, L’Elisir d’Amore, L’Orfeo, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, La Cenerentola, La Clemenza di Tito, La Fanciulla del West, La Forza del Destino, La Rondine, La Traviata, Le Nozze di Figaro, Lucia di Lammermoor, Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, Nabucco, Orfeo ed Euridice, Otello, Rigoletto, Suor Angelica, Turandot, Un Ballo in Maschera, Carmen, Cendrillon, Faust, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, L’Heure Espagnole, Le Testament de la Tante Caroline, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Roméo et Juliette.

During these productions she has been privileged to work with directors and conductors of international repute such as John Copley, Joseph Ward OBE, Moffat Oxenbould AM, Andrew Sinclair, John Wregg, Simon Phillips, Bille Brown AM, Anna Sweeny AM;  Richard Bonynge AC CBE, Peter Robinson, Richard Mills AM, Alexander Ingram, Giovanni Reggioli, Richard Divall OBE, John Matheson, Richard Gill OAM, Graham Abbott and Emmanuel Joel-Hornak.

The collaborative connection established with the artists during rehearsals reaffirms Teresa’s conviction of the vital connection between music and language in successful performance.

As a specialist language consultant, she has extended her coaching skills to work with artists of live theatre such as Robyn Nevin and Amanda Muggleton, both of whom she coached for the role of Maria Callas in Terence McNally’s internationally acclaimed play “Masterclass”.

Teresa divides her time between Australia and Europe assisting singers with the full linguistic preparation of operatic roles, particularly recitative techniques, in which she specializes.