Leonor Amaral is a Portuguese soprano known for her versatility in both concert and operatic repertoire.
Even during her studies, she had already acquired a vast repertoire of operatic pieces ranging from Handel to Bizet. Her talent was acknowledged in 2013 when she made her debut at the Theater Lübeck with roles such as Gretchen in Wildschütz and Mi in Das Land des Lächelns. She then played Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo and Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen at the Opera Festival Gut Immling.
Leonor was a part of the ensemble at the Theater Nordhausen after her studies, where she played numerous roles such as Musetta in La Bohème, Marie in Zar und Zimmermann, and Adele in Die Fledermaus. She also performed internationally, including at the Schloss Hallwyl summer festival in Switzerland, where she played the role of Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. She made her debut as Zerlina in Auber’s Fra Diavolo, Norina in Don Pasquale, the Queen of the Night, and Madame Herz in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, when she joined the ensemble of the Theater Erfurt in 2018.
The coloratura soprano was semifinalist in the established singing competition Neue Stimmen of the Bertelsmann Foundation and finalist in the famous Cesti-Competition for baroque opera. To date, she has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Württembergische Kammerorchester and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. She has also performed in various concert halls and venues such as the Kölner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the beautiful Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal.
Musical repertoire also sits confortably with Leonor, as she has performed a musical medley in numerous concerts with the Musikkorps der Bundeswehr. She recorded a crossover piece of Lady Gaga and Queen of the Night with the WDR Funkhausorchester. Since 2019 she has been working with the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.
When it comes to contemporary music, she had the honor to sing the piece Hommage a T.S. Eliot for composer Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2017 she debut at the Wuppertaler Bühnen with the opera Der Aschemond oder The Fairy Queen by Helmut Oehring and in 2019 she performed in Steve Reich’s video opera Three Tales in the Theater Erfurt.
In the baroque scene she already worked with ensembles like the Pera Ensemble, with whom she sang a concert at the Gasteig in Munich and she sang Purcell’s Fairy Queen in the Monforthaus in Austria with the Concerto Stella Matutina. In 2022 she performed and recorded the Singspiel Der Stein der Weisen oder die Zauberinsel (by Mozart a.o.) with the Hofkapelle München. In 2023 she will perform the Great Mass in C minor by Mozart under the batom of Ton Koopman and the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
She started her opera studies in 2009 in Cologne with Christoph Prégardien, finishing her bachelors in Düsseldorf with Konrad Jarnot. She did her masters in Lübeck with Caroline Stein followed by an Excellence Program in Düsseldorf with Anja Paulus. She is currently coached by Roberta Cunningham. Leonor Amaral has a Bachelor in management.