Nadine Benjamin

“Nadine Benjamin’s scene-stealing Musetta suggested a warmth and humanity that would serve her well as a future Mimì.” – The Sunday Times

“Individually, I would pick out … Nadine Benjamin’s Clara (her Summertime is one of the loveliest I’ve heard) ….” – The Times

“Benjamin sang exquisitely [Figaro – ETO]; her voice has the texture and balance for later Verdi and she uses it with style and expertise.” – Opera magazine

“… the fabulous British soprano Nadine Benjamin, who on the strength of the beauty of her voice this evening [Isabeau – OHP] has a fine career ahead.” – Seen & Heard International

British lyric soprano Nadine Benjamin is a charismatic and versatile artist who is in increasing demand on both the operatic stage and the concert platform. She is also developing great renown as an exponent of song, in particular Verdi, Strauss, Berg and contemporary American song. Nadine is an English National Opera Harewood Artist and made her debut with the Company in 2018 as Clara (Porgy and Bess), followed by Musetta (La bohème). She returns to ENO in early 2020 to sing Laura (Luisa Miller) and First Nymph (Rusalka). Further opera engagements during the 2019/20 season include First Nymph (Rusalka) for Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Lili Béguin (Margot la Rouge) at Opera Holland Park, and Clara (Porgy and Bess) with Theater an der Wien. Nadine’s principal roles to date include the title role in Aida, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), La Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Nadia in Tippett’s The Ice Break with Birmingham Opera Company, Desdemona (Otello) with Everybody Can! Opera, Violetta (La traviata), Tosca (Tosca) and Musetta (La bohème) for the Mediterranean Opera Festival, Musetta (cover) for Scottish Opera, Tosca and The Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) for English Touring Opera, Ermyntrude in Mascagni’s Isabeau and Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) with Opera Holland Park and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) with Iford Arts. In concert, Nadine has performed Berg’s Seven Early Songs, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Schubert’s Mass no. 5 and the soprano solos in both Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 and Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine. She has sung the soprano solo in Poulenc’s Gloria at Coventry Cathedral and in Villebon, France, as well as with The Waynflete Singers and the English Chamber Orchestra at Winchester Cathedral, and has given numerous solo recitals at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. Further performances include Barber’s Knoxville – Summer of 1915, Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Mahler 4 and the Verdi Requiem with West London Sinfonia, Poulenc’s Gloria, Dvorak’s Te Deum and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Winchester and Coventry Cathedrals, as well as concerts with the Chineke! Orchestra. Nadine made her debut at the BBC Proms in 2019 and has most recently appeared at the Women’s Festival in Greece and given a private recital at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. Future London highlights include Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the latter under the baton of Marin Alsop at the Southbank Centre. Nadine created the principal role of Imoinda in the UK premiere of The Crossing, an opera by the Cuban-American composer Odaline de la Martinez, at the 5th London Festival of American Music in 2014. She has a long-running relationship with LFAM, and has performed song cycles by Bolcom, Child and Barber at the Festival as well as the European premiere of John Harbison’s Milosz Songs. At the 6th Festival in 2016, Nadine led a programme of works by female American composers, accompanied by Susanna Stranders. Nadine recorded the role of Mrs. Waters in Dame Ethel Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate for Retrospect Opera, also under the baton of de la Martinez, released in 2016 to critical acclaim and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In collaboration with pianist Nicole Panizza, Nadine recently recorded ‘Emergence’, a selection of songs set to the poems of Emily Dickinson, which was released in autumn 2019. Her debut solo CD ‘Love & Prayer’ was released in 2018. In 2015 Nadine founded ‘Everybody Can!’ to provide a platform to encourage others to believe in themselves and to support them in recognising that whatever they envision can be achieved. She has both produced and sung principal roles in Otello and Tosca for ‘Everybody Can! Opera’. Nadine was “highly commended” at the 2016 Aviva ‘Women of the Future Awards’ and invited to both Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street in recognition of her work as a mentor and singer. Hailed by ‘Opera Now’ magazine as one of their favourite top ten sopranos in “a new generation of sopranos who are destined to have impressive careers”, Nadine won the inaugural Fulham Opera Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize in 2015.