Natalie Dessay sings Michel LegrandWarner ClassicsWhen an opera singer turns to movies there is reason to suspect that the primary motives are not necessarily artistic. Less suspicion, perhaps, in the case of Natalie Dessay, who considers herself a singing actress rather than a diva and whose personal interests range above and beyond a stretch-limo ego and a high tessitura.What Ms. Dessay sings here is, she says, the soundtrack of her life. Michel Legrand may be known the world over for ‘Windmills of My Mind’ from The Thomas Crown Affair, but in France he’s part of the furniture, dominating French cinema for the past half century. Ms Dessay heard him first when she was six years old. The chance to meet him was irresistible, the record that followed inevitable.Some of the tracks here are of such local particularity that you’d struggle to find them on major databases, others possess a domestic simplicity. A cake recipe sung with Patricia Petibon falls into both categories. But it’s followed by an enchanting Lilac Waltz and once Natalie is let loose on the Hollywood showstoppers – the Streisand prayer from Yentl, Sinatra’s What are you doing the rest of your life, the Windmills cronned with Legrand in French – she’s altogether irresistible. And then there’s the duet from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg with her husband, Laurent Naouri. Just listen. I can’t stop.___Norman Lebrecht is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other publications. He has written 12 books about music, the most recent being Why Mahler? He hosts the blog Slipped Disc.