Biography

Camila Ribero-Souza was born in São Paulo, Brazil, where she studied singing with Jocelyne Gallo, Edilson Costa and Luiz Tenaglia. She earned a Baccalaureate degree in opera singing from Faculdades Santa Marcelina and a Diploma in Simultaneous and Consecutive Interpretation and Literary and Technical Translation from Associação Alumni (São Paulo - Brazil), being fluent in Portuguese, English, French, Italian and German, and also having a basic working knowledge in Spanish. She has earned a Master of Music in Opera Performance Degree "With Distinction" from the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester - UK), under the vocal guidance of Thomas Schulze, thanks to the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust. For 2009/2010, she was a special guest member of the now extinct Nederland Opera Studio. Until 2013 she was mentored by dramatic tenor Ian Storey, but now finds herself under the vocal guidance of the american dramatic soprano Nadine Secunde. From March 2011 until January 2018 she was a member of the soloist ensemble of the Meininger Staatstheater. In February 2018 she joined the ensemble at the Deutsches National Theater Weimar as a spinto soprano, where she is currently engaged.

In her early career, in Brazil, she has sung Serpina in La Serva Padrona (G.B. Pergolesi), recorded live by Radio Cultura FM, Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne (W.A.Mozart), recorded live by Radio Cultura FM, Flaminia in the Brazilian national première of Il Mondo della Luna (J. Haydn), Queen of Spades in O Chá de Alice (musical comedy based on Lewis Caroll), Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (W.A.Mozart), Spring, First Fairy and Mistery in The Fairy Queen (H. Purcell), Elena in Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze (Nino Rota), Schleppträgerin in Elektra (R. Strauss). As a Master Degree in Performance student in Manchester, England, she sang the title-role in Kát'a Kabanová (L. Janacek), in Manchester and Mimi in La Bohème (G. Puccini), in London (with the British Youth Opera).

The german-brazilian soprano has made her professional German and European début as Irene in Rienzi (Wagner) and has since sung Baronin Freimann in Der Wildschütz (Lortzin) in Meiningen and Eisenach, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) in Meiningen, Eisenach, Nordhausen/Rudolstadt, Hof, Bayreuth and DNT Weimar(both in German and Italian) , Mariana in Das Liebesverbot (Wagner) in Meiningen, Sylva Varescu in Die Csárdásfürstin (Kálmán) in Meiningen, Eisenach, Görlitz-Zittau and Pforzheim, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) in Meiningen, Pforzheim, Radebeul by Dresden, Chemnitz Opera and DNT Weimar, the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (Britten) in Meiningen and Eisenach, Ažar in the German Premiere of Abai (A. K. Schubanow & L. A. Hamidi), First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) in Meiningen, Eisenach and the Semperoper Dresden, Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser (Wagner) in the Wartburg Castle, DNT Weimar and Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, Feldmarschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss), La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini) in Meiningen, Eisenach and Ingolstadt, the title-role in Kát'a Kábanová (Janácek) in Manchester, Meiningen and Krefeld, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss) in Meiningen, Eisenach and the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Mother Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel in Manchester, Meiningen and DNT Weimar, Gräfin Madeleine in Capriccio, the title-role in Gräfin Mariza in Meiningen, Eisenach and Magdeburg, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Meiningen, Giulietta in Hoffmanns Erzälungen, has created the role of Elena, for the world premiere of Anya 17 (Adam Gorb/Ben Kaye), the title-role in Puccini's Tosca in Meiningen, Ingolstadt and DNT Weimar, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Primadonna/Ariadne in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at the DNT Weimar, Saarländisches Staatstheater and Bielefeld Theatre and the title role in Verdi's Aida in Plauen-Zwickau and the DNT Weimar; she has also taken part in Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Kantate 129, Vivaldi's Beatus Vir, In Furore Iustissimae Irae and Gloria, Poulenc's Gloria, Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5, Ravel's Shéhérazade, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, the mezzo-solo part in Alexandre Goehr's Sing, Ariel, at the Wigmore Hall (London), Debussy's La Damoiselle Éllue and Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Meiningen, Verdi's Messa da Requiem in Meiningen and Schweinfurt and soprano solo at the Neue Eutiner Festspiele`s Gala Concert Viva la Musica! 2019 as well as Lieder by R. Strauss, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler, Schubert, Grieg, Tschaikovsky, Korsakov, Glinka and Rachmaninoff, having worked with conductors Roberto Minczuk, John Neschling, Clark Rundell, Matthew Coorey, Mark Heron, Philippe Bach, Alexander Steinitz, Alan Buribayev, Leo McFall, Arturo Alvarado, Chin Chao Lin, Michael Helmrath, Kirill Karabits, Dominik Beykirch, Stefan Lano, Patric Lange, Hilary Griffiths and Michael Boder, and has sung at the Opening Concert of the Astana New Opera House (Nursultan, Kazakstan) as soprano solo, under the baton of Mo. Alan Buribayev.

She has participated in masterclasses with Neyde Thomas (Brazil), Rio Novello (Italy), Regina Elena Mesquita (Brazil), Virginia Zeani (Rumania - USA), Ian Storey (UK), Heidi Grant Murphy (USA), Nathalie Stutzmann (France), Rita Contino (Uruguay), Mara Zampieri (Italy), Sir Thomas Allen (UK), Dennis O'Neill (UK) and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (New Zealand/UK), being also a finalist in the IV and VI Maria Callas Brazilian Voice Competition and the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Award for Singers.

In March 2013 she was awarded with the Ulrich-Bernhard Förderpreis für Junge Künstler 2013, in Meiningen, Germany.

In October 2014 she was nominated Singer of the Year in the internationally acclaimed opera magazine OPERNWELT by Tom Sutcliffe (Opera Now, New Directions; London), for her performance as Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

In 2018 she has passed the course Voice disorders: what patients and professionals need to know by the ICAHN School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and in 2020 she has passed the course 19th-Century Opera: Meyebeer, Wagner & Verdi, by Harvard University (HarvardX).

In August 2018 she covered the role of Eva in the opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner) for the Bayreuther Festspiele, and in May 2019 she gave her house début at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Irene, in Wagner's Rienzi.

Still in the middle of the Coronvirus Lockdowns, she has covered all the rehearsals of Gräfin Madeleine in Richard Strauss' Capriccio at the Semperoper Dresden in April/May 2021 as well as Rienzi's Irene at the Leipziger Oper in 2022.

She has opened the Season 2023/2024 in two theatres at the same time, the German National Theatre with the world premiere Missing in Cantu, eure paläste sind leer, by Johann Maria Staud, where she created the role of the Witch under the baton of 1st Kapellmeister Andreas Wolf and direction of Andrea Moses, and as a soprano soloist at the Gala Concerts of the Nordhausen Theatre with excerpts from Gounod, Tschaikovsky and Wagner, under the baton of Intendant Daniel Klajner. On the 2nd December 2023 she will give her long awaited role debut as Senta, in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, under the baton of Music Director Dominik Beykirch and direction of Barbora Horáková, and on the 18th May 2024 she will début two roles simultaneously in Il Trittico, as Giorgetta in Il Tabarro and as Angelica in Suor Angelica, under the baton of Dominik Beykirch and direction of Dirk Schmedig. She will also revisit the title-role in the Faust Prize winner production of Ariadne auf Naxos in Weimar and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser in Schwerin, both by the very talented Stage Director Martin G. Berger.

Camila Ribero-Souza

Portrait by Candy Welz