Sara Braga Simões

Photo: Alfredo Rocha

Soprano Sara Braga Simoes is a winner of several national and international prizes. Operatic Roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte - Mozart) Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro – Mozart), Zerlina (Don Giovanni – Mozart), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel - E. Humperdinck), Despina (Così fan Tutte - W.A. Mozart), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw – B. Britten), Spinalba (La Spinalba - F. António de Almeida), Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty – O. Respighi), Jenny (Three sisters who are not sisters – N. Rorem), Rowan (The Little Sweep - B. Britten). She sang Ein Deutsches Requiem – Brahms, Des Knabem Wunderhorn – Mahler, E vo - Berio, Trois poèmes de Stephan Mallarmé - M.Ravel, Nuits d’étè - H.Berlioz, Te Deum - Dvorack, Madrigals (Book I) - George Crumb, Shîr - João Pedro Oliveira*, D’une saison… l’autre - A. Lemeland*, Lacrymosa - Yanov-Yanovsky, Magnificat, Dixit Dominus and Gloria - A.Vivaldi, The Devil’s Suite - Peter Maxwell Davies, Christmas Oratorio - Saint-Saëns, Stabat Mater - G.B.Pergolesi and Haddock’s Eyes - David Del Tredici. Sara was directed by Martin André, Cesário Costa, Laurence Cummings, Marc Tardue, Osvaldo Ferreira, Stefan Asbury, Peter Rundell, Ferreira Lobo, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Brad Cohen, Peter Birgamin, Armando Vidal, Jaroslav Mikus, Gunther Arglebe, Yoichi Sugyiana, among others. Engagements for this season include her London debut with the world premier of Pedro Amaral’s opera in London: The Dream, Nino Rota’s Aladin (as The Princess) and George Benjamin’s A Mind of winter in Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon). (text by Sara Braga Simões)

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Carla Caramujo

Soprano Carla Caramujo completed her Bachelor and Masters in Music Performance, with distinction, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Opera Course. She studied with Laura Sarti and Patricia MacMahon. She was a scholar of the Samling Foundation in the UK. Carla Caramujo won first prizes in a number of competitions including the Luisa Todi National Singing Competition (Lisbon), Chevron Excellence award 2005 and Ye Cronies Award 2006 (UK) and at the Musikförderpreis der Hans-Sachs-Loge (Nürnberg). She made her début at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC), Lisbon, as Gilda Rigoletto and in a Concert Gala with Vesselina Kasarova. Carla Caramujo’s operatic roles include Adina L’elisir d’amore (Teatro da Trindade), Violetta La traviata (Sintra’s Festival), Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Trinity theatre, Kent), Madame Herz Die Schauspieldirektor (Teatro das Figuras, Faro), Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte (Teatro Rivoli, Porto), Valetto L’incoronazione di Poppea (Traverse Theater, Edimbrough), Armida Rinaldo (Festival Theater, Edimbrough), Frasquita Carmen (Teatro Communale, Bologna), Flight Controller Flight (New atheneum theater, Glasgow), She in Douglas Templeton’s Night Square, Usignuolo and Fata Azzurra in Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco (Casa das Artes, Famalicão). Her concert performances include Brahms Requiem, Bach Magnificat, Handel Messiah, Mozart C minor Mass, Beethoven Mass in C, Mendelssohn Elijah, Poulenc Gloria, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart Concert Arias, in major UK venues and in Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Portugal where she has also performed at entro Cultural de Belém, Gulbenkian and many of the major music festivals. In 2008, Carla has participated on a doccumentary series for RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Percursos da Música Portuguesa, with a recital performed at the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos. Last summer she returned to Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon to sing sang Donna Anna Don Giovanni and recently she sang Nena in Pergolesi’s Lo frate 'nnamorato for CCB (Lisbon) and Vespina in Francisco António de Almeida’s La Spinalba for the festival Are-more of Vigo (Spain). In Spring 2010 she will sing Adele Die Fledermaus, also at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.


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Ana Paula Russo

As a soloist, soprano Ana Paula Russo has sung in many Lied and Oratorium concerts, as well as in Opera. Some of her outstanding works were for the Gulbenkian Foundation, RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Europalia-91 (in Brussels) and Lisbon 94 – capital of culture.In 1989, she represented Portugal in the “Cardiff Singer of the World” Competition. She took part in some important music festivals, such as Capuchos, Leiria, Estoril, Algarve, P. de Varzim, F. da Foz and the International Festival of Macao. In concert, she sang works as, for instance, “Das Buch der hängenden Gärten” (Schönberg), “Les Noces” (Stravinsky),”Les Illuminations” (Britten), Cantata op, 29 (Webern), works by A. Chagas Rosa, “Carmina Burana” (C. Orff), “Stabat Mater” (Rossini and Dvorak) and many others. The Opera and Scenic music have had a major importance in APRusso’s career. Among many others, we can point out roles as: Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Marie (La fille du regiment), Ninette (The love of the three Oranges),Musetta (La Bohéme), Adele (Der Fledermaus), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Ernesta (As Damas Trocadas), Hanna (The merry Widow), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Cunegonde (Candide), Vespetta (Pimpinone), Eurydice (Orphé aux Enfers), Nightingale (The Nightingale by Stravinsky), Minette (The English Cat by H.W Henze), D.Anna (D. Giovanni). In April’98 she was one of the singers in the world premiere of the opera “Os Dias Levantados” by António Pinho Vargas – this work was recorded on cd by EMI. In 1998, Ana Paula was chosen to sing the female leading role in the opera “White Raven” (world premiere) by Philip Glass in the Expo’98 in Lisbon. This opera was also sung in Madrid (Teatro Real) and in New York (Lincoln Center/NY State Opera). In the 10th anniversary of Fernando Lopes Graça’s death (2004), she sang the soprano soloist part in the composer’s Requiem – this performance was released on cd in 2006. In 2008 she sang in the world premiere of “Evil Machines”, a musical fantasy by Terry Jones (Monthy Python), with music by Luis Tinoco. Together wih Carlos Gutkin (guitar player), she recorded a very successful cd with ibero-american music, “Melodia Sentimental”. In 2009, she sang the main soloist part in Marcos Portugal’s “Missa Grande”, recorded in cd.

(Text by Ana Paula Russo)

Catarina Molder

Born in Lisbon, soprano Catarina Molder got her Master degree of Singing at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, followed by post-graduation in Singing at Hamburg Music University. She worked with the choir of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and made several recordings for RDP plus concerts with orchestra under the direction of João Paulo Santos, Jorge Matta, Christopher Bochmann, Cesário Costa, Leite Raposo and Will Humburg. She took part in the Music Festivals of Macau, Musicatlântico with two Opera Galas in Azores, the International Music Festivals of Guarda and Leiria. Between 1999 and 2002 she did recitals with german lider, mélodie, kabarett songs, Portuguese songs, among others, all over Portugal. She created the show “Universo da Infância”, Song and Piano Recitals for Children which, since the success of its premiere in Lisbon, in October 99, travelled all over the country for more than 5 years, with over 200 performances. She featured in José Júlio Lopes’ contemporary opera “Nefertiti”, among others, and produced several successful operas and opera shows, some of them for children audiences. Her enormous flexibility in repertoire, from Puccini to contemporary music, from lied and melodie to Kabarett, musical or jazz, and her special skills as an actress lead her to do both repertoire Operas or modern experimental shows. She participated as narrator and performer in Concerts for Children where she also sung with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and Gulbenkian Orchestra. Besides her career as a singer, she also directs her own Opera Company (Companhia de Ópera do Castelo) in Lisbon. In 2005/06 she was invited by the Gulbenkian Foundation to create and direct the Educational Project Discovering Music at Gulbenkian, where she is also the artistic director of a Mini-Saison specially design for children and young people. (adapted from text by Catarina Molder)

Contacts: ph. 00 351 936355794
catarinamolder@gmail.com coperadocastelo@gmail.com

Catarina Molder's show "Memory of Angels":