Biography

Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia: mezzo-soprano

The opera singer Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia, nominated for the Thalia Awards 2016 for the title role of Carmen, is unique in her specific, hard-to-classify voice type called Falcon, which is characterized by a mezzo-soprano color and a tessitura typical of a dramatic soprano. The name refers to the French soprano Cornélia Falcon (1814-1897), who became famous for her dark voice color and soprano range. (falcon, Falcon)

Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia received musical training at the Prague and Pilsen Conservatories, followed up by attendance of numerous master classes in this country and abroad (including among others the Masterclasses of José Cura or Dagmar Pecková, in 2016 and 2012, respectively). She complemented her artistic schooling by language studies at Charles University in Prague.

In the season 2024/25, she made her successful debut at the National Theater in Prague in the role of Amando in the opera Le Grand Macabre by Gyorgy Ligeti. She currently makes regular appearances as a singer in various parts of the Czech Republic and abroad, apart from which she has so far toured in Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Israel, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, and others, working with leading international and Czech conductors and orchestras, she appears on the Czech and world opera stages. In May 2023, she made her debut at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, where she performed as Ottavia in Monteverdi's opera The Coronation of Poppea in the production of the J.K. Tyl Theater in Pilsen and where she returned again in May 2024 as Annio in Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito. She cooperates with a famous musicologist Anja Bunzel, whose unique projects enrich musical culture around the world. She will perform as part of them in 2023 in Salzburg and Vienna. The Czech Radio showed interest in the program "Music salons in the 19th century in Bohemia - women composers", Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia recorded this program and it was broadcast in March 2022.

She has to her credit several CD recordings: Amor eterno, 2009, featuring 19th- and 20th-century operatic arias; Umění milovati (The Art of Loving), 2009, with music by contemporary Czech composer ZdeněkZahradník; Písně Almy Mahlerové (Songs of Alma Mahler), 2011, a live recording from a concert at Prague´s Municipal House, with ZdeněkMácal conducting the Prague Symphony Orchestra; A Tribute to the Jewish Soul, 2015, with Ervín Schulhoff´s Symphony for Contralto and Orchestra “Menschheit” and Gustav Mahler´s Kindertotenlieder (played by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc and the Northern Bohemia Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice, respectively, under the baton of Alfonso Scarano); Cesta k slunci (Journey towards the Sun), 2016, a profile album of contemporary Czech composer Jan Vičar, singing solo part in the symphonic fantasy Žítkovská bohyně (The Žítkov Goddess); song cycle The Magic Wheel of the Zodiac of the australian composer Margaret Brandman; her profile CD with arias and songs recorded in October 2018 in Vienna; and most recently Versi Santi, 2021 and Dejá vu, 2022, profile albums of contemporary Czech composer Josef Vejvoda.

Apart from Carmen, her gallery of opera creations includes the roles of Gluck´s Alceste (Alceste), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Amando (Le Grand Macabre), Neris (Medea), Queen Gertrude (Hamlet), Idamante (Idomeneo), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Catherine (Greek Passion), Fenena (Nabucco), Kate (The Devil and Kate), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Cherubino(Le Nozze di Figaro), Ottavia (The Coronation of Poppea), Witch and the Foreign Princess (Rusalka), Mistress Quickly (Falstaff), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Flóra (La Traviata), Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Malina (The Soldier and the Dancer), Dinah (Les Trois souhaitsou Les Vicissitudes de la vie), Mara (A Night Filled with Light), Ernestina (L´occasione fa illadro), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Wanda (Polish Blood), Boulotte (Offenbach´s Barbe-Bleue), and others. He has studied Delilah (Samson and Delilah).

Her rich repertoire includes not only opera roles, but also song, symphony, sacred and oratorio work. She is also close to contemporary music and thus testifies to the unique versatility of this artist.

In 2017 Barborade Nunes-Cambraia made it to the shortlist of nominations for the 2016 Thalie Award in the Opera category, for her creation of the title role in Bizet´s Carmen in a production of the Silesian Theatre Opava.

Since September 2015 she has coupled her successful artistic career with teaching solo voice at the Teplice Conservatory.

She gave Master classes at the Conservatory in Akko, Israel and in Brazil, where she regularly returns.