About
Natalie
Christie
Peluso
About
Biography
Natalie Christie Peluso is a social and affective neuroscientist undertaking her PhD at The University of Queensland, under the supervision of Associate Professor Jessica Taubert and Professor Julie Henry. With over 20 years of international acclaim as an opera singer and master voice teacher, Natalie channels this expertise by investigating how mind-body interactions impact social intelligence, with a particular focus on multimodal communication (face, voice, gesture). She is also a specialist in the phenomenology and neuroscience of voluntary breathing, and its effects on cognition, emotion, interoception, and behaviour.
Natalie graduated in 2023 with First Class Honours from The University of Queensland (Bachelor of Psychological Science), adding to her Bachelor of Music from The University of Melbourne and her postgraduate studies in Opera and Voice at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
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Operatic Career
"Natalie's Susanna in my production of Le Nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera and Opera Australia, was just about what any director would dream of… exquisitely sung and wonderfully acted. Natalie has great natural comedy, a fierce intelligence, and (which is completely unfair) she is uncommonly beautiful. She moves well too. In short – dazzling."
Neil Armfield, Australian directorHelpmann Award nominee Natalie Christie Peluso captivated audiences and critics alike with her dynamic, effervescent stage presence and an inviting lyric soprano voice described by London critics as "full of youthful, delicious beauty" and "electrifying freshness."
In Australia, recent opera appearances include Athena in The Children's Bach for the Canberra International Music Festival (recorded for ABC); both Euridice and Amor in Gluck's Orfeo with Opera Queensland/Circa; Hanna in Lehár's The Merry Widow and Rose Maybud in Gilbert/Sullivan's Ruddigore, both for Opera Queensland; Niece 2/Ellen Cover in Britten's Peter Grimes for Brisbane Festival/Opera Queensland; both Ottavia/Drusilla in Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea with Pinchgut Opera; and Adele in Die Fledermaus for Opera Queensland and Queensland Music Festival.
Recent concert appearances include Four Last Songs (Strauss), Pieces of 9/11 (Jake Heggie), and Bach Cantata 32 for the Australian Festival of Chamber Music; Bach B Minor Mass conducted by Stephen Layton; Mahler Symphony No. 4 conducted by Simone Young; and Handel Messiah, all with Queensland Symphony Orchestra; Rachmaninov The Bells, Fauré and Duruflé Requiems with Brisbane Chorale; Soprano 1 Mozart Mass in C Minor with Victoria Chorale; Górecki Symphony of Sorrowful Songs with Camerata of St. John's.
A favourite at Welsh National Opera, her roles there included Sr Constance in The Carmelites, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Gilda in Rigoletto, Eurydice in Orphée et Eurydice, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina in Così Fan Tutte, Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Marzelline in Leonora.
Elsewhere she received acclaim for Zerlina in Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; the Soprano in Bach's St. John Passion with English National Opera directed by Deborah Warner; and celebrated appearances as Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Australia.
Concert appearances include Handel's Jephtha with RIAS Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie; Soprano 1 Mozart Mass in C Minor with the Oslo Baroque; Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and Couperin's Leçons des Ténèbres at the 1998 Aldeburgh Festival. She has appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, Batignano Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Windsor Castle in the presence of HRH Prince Charles. Her accolades include the Australian Singing Competition Marianne Mathy Award and Grand Finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
After a career based largely in London, she returned to Australia with her husband and four children, and now calls Brisbane home. Future appearances are on hold while Natalie undertakes her PhD.