London-based Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens is a Harewood Artist with English National Opera. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy Opera Programme at the Royal Academy of Music, and an alumna of the Georg Solti Accademia, where she worked with Alessandro Corbelli, Barbara Frittoli, and Sir Richard Bonynge.
In the 2024/ 2025 Season, she will join the ensemble of Deutsche Oper Berlin where her roles will include Musetta La bohème, title role The Cunning Little Vixen, Frasquita Carmen, Papagena / Pamina Die Zauberflöte, and Modestina Il viaggio a Reims.
Recent highlights with ENO include the roles of Papagena / Pamina, Elsie in Yeoman of the Guard, A lady in waiting in a concert version of Gloriana, Frasquita, Josephine in HMS Pinafore and Pepik/The Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Musetta. Other highlights include her debut with Opera Australia as Despina Così fan tutte at the Sydney Opera House; Ann Trulove The Rake's Progress, Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Grange Festival; Almirena in Rinaldo and Dafne in Cavalli’s Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne with Pinchgut Opera; Laurette in a televised semi-staged production of Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle with L’Orchestre de Chamber de Geneve; and Barbarina The Marriage of Figaro in her Opera North debut.
In concert she has sung Haydn’s Creation with the Australian Haydn Ensemble at the Canberra International Music Festival and Sydney City Recital Hall, Mendelsohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with The King’s Consort, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with Pinchgut Opera and the French premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Puzzles and Games with Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France at the Festival Présences.
Alexandra has performed as a soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Eroica Ensemble, and the Orchestra of the Antipodes. She has performed at such venues as the London Coliseum, the Concertgebouw, the Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Recital Hall, and the City Recital Hall.
Alexandra holds an Advanced Diploma of Opera, a Master of Arts (Hons), and an Honorary DipRAM for outstanding performance (Royal Academy of Music), and a BMus (Hons.) from the Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Suor Angelica (Sister Genovieffa)
English National Opera, September 2024
'One standout away from these principals was soprano Alexandra Oomens, who made a very strong impression as the Magdalene Sister Genevieve, and sings of sunlight striking a fountain in golden tones, her voice clarion clear. Her recent and ongoing roles at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper comprise Frasquita (Carmen) and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte); I very much hope to see and hear her again.'
Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
'A perfect performance from Alexandra Oomens'
David Nice, The Arts Desk
A standout performer for me was Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens as the irrepressible Sister Genevieve. A Harewood Artist with English National Opera, Oomens has a lightness of touch combined with a vocal vivacity that suggests a fine career ahead of her.
Adrian York, London Unattached
Carmen (Frasquita)
Deutsche Oper Berlin, September 2024
One last and noteworthy mention is the soprano Alexandra Oomens, who played Frasquita. What a voice! Versatile, fun, educated, powerful, charming. She was spotless.
Carlos Suárez Tavernier, Operawire
Così fan tutte (Despina)
Sydney Opera House, August 2024
"Oomens elicits plenty of laughs in an often scene-stealing performance that borders on the pantomimic and sees her reappear in various disguises – her physical mutability and vocal characterisations showing off her skills as a character actor."
Jansson J. Antmann, Limelight Magazine
"Oomens, another Pinchgut alumna, was a charming and entertaining Despina, singing with rather more gorgeous tone than we often hear in this role."
Sandra Bowdler, Bachtrack
"Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens almost stole the show as the women’s cynical maid, Despina"
Tom Pillans, Daily Telegraph
The Rake's Progress (Anne Trulove)
The Grange Festival, June 2024
“Alexandra Oomens as Anne was compelling throughout, negotiating her various vocal hurdles (top C included) with ease and projecting an uncommonly affecting presence.”
Roger Parker, Opera Magazine
"Rising steadily in profile over the last few years, soprano Alexandra Oomens gives what is perhaps her best performance yet as Tom’s faithful Anne Trulove, her voice unfailingly appealing and her technical skills impeccable in a part that is frequently vocally exposed. Her heartfelt interpretation is unforgettable."
George Hall, The Stage
"As the ever-constant Anne . . . Oomens sustains a really excellent concentrated tone, firmness of pitch and moving eloquence as she soars up to the top C with which Stravinsky finds a link back to the operas of the past."
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
"Alexandra Oomens offers piercing clarity as Anne Trulove, at her best singing her heartbroken lullaby to Tom."
Rebecca Franks, The Times
"Oomens delighted the audience with the sweetness of her tone and the earnestness of her commitment to the text."
David Karlin, Bachtrack
"Oomens sweet radiance makes her a perfect Anne, especially touching as she cradles Tom in Bedlam."
Hugh Canning's Operalogue
The Magic Flute (Papagena)
English National Opera, Winter 2024
"Alexandra Oomens is a perky Papagena"
Rebecca Franks, The Times
"David Stout’s earthy Papageno makes the most of the comedy, crowned with a sprightly duet with his bright Papagena, Alexandra Oomens"
Jessica Duchen, iNews
"Alexandra Oomens as [Stout's] lovingly hoped-for Papagena was a delight"
Mark Ronan, The Article
Handel's Rinaldo (Almirena)
Pinchgut Opera, December 2023
"There is plenty of on-stage chemistry with his well-matched love interest, Almirena, played with aplomb by Alexandra Oomens, her crystal clear, nimble tones, throwing off riffs of ornaments with consummate ease. Her sarabande, Lascia ch’io pianga is spellbinding; Augeletti,is a delightfully pure duet with the sopranino recorder, and her last act Bel piacere is charming with its infectious displaced rhythms and hemiolas."
Shamistha de Soysa, Limelight
"London-based Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens made a welcome return to Pinchgut as Rinaldo’s lover, Almirena . . . Her pure and even tone across the range was put to good use in the duet Augeletti che cante . . . But the show stopper, and perhaps the best known of all the arias in the opera, Lascia ch’io pangia (Let me weep) was soul-wrenching with the audience hushed, earning Oomens the biggest ovation of the show."
Steve Moffat, The Daily Telegraph
"In the opera’s most well-known aria, Lascia ch’io pianga, in Part 2, Oomens began with haunting quietness, sustaining a pace of barely moving stillness through simplicity of line and transparent clarity of sound.
In more lively numbers she sang with bright tone, full of rich colour, and always with unerringly true pitch."
Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald
"Soprano Oomens, as Almirena, sang possibly Handel's most famous opera aria, "Lascia ch'io pianga" with a soft intensity that had the audience rapt, as if they had never heard it before."
NIcholas Routley, Australian Stage
"Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens was a gutsy Almirena . . . But there was a wonderful stillness to the opening of her plea for freedom, “Lascia chi’o pianga,” . . . Oomen’s arguably sparing decoration suited the piercing simplicity of her rendering, which garnered deserved applause."
Gordon Williams, Operawire
"Rinaldo’s love interest, Almirena, is sung by Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens with sweet, youthful clarity. As the orchestra took up ['Lascia ch’io pianga''s opening] sighing chords, the audience leant forward in hushed anticipation. Oomens didn’t disappoint, letting each phrase grow from poignant stillness to a vocal bloom of heartrending, bell-like purity."
Chantal Nguyen, The Saturday Paper
"As Almirena, Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens has a strong rich voice belying her small frame, and she managed to instil new life and feeling into 'Lascia chi’o pianga'."
Sandra Bowdler, Bachtrack
"[Alexandra Oomens] brings an exuberance and light to the role of Almirena"
Carol Wimmer, Stage Whispers
"Oomens sang 'Lascia ch'io pianga' with outstanding purity of tone, touching emotion, and delicate decoration"
Deborah Jones, Opera Magazine
Orfeo ed Euridice (Euridice) and Dido and Aeneus (Belinda)
Grange Festival Opera, June 2023
“Soprano Alexandra Oomens is winningly bright and clear as Euridice, her silvery tone utterly charming and Euridice’s changing emotions – passion, joy, confusion, fear, anger – touchingly expressed”
Claire Seymor, Opera Today
“Her Euridice and Belinda were sung with fluent ease and lovely tone by Alexandra Oomens, making a notable company debut. Visually a dead ringer for the actress Florence Pugh, she exuded confidence both as a feisty wife and an enabling aide to her celebrity queen.”
Melanie Eskenazi, Music OMH
"Oomen's bright, light soprano and engaging stage presence made much of Gluck's under-drawn heroine heroine more than just the object of Orfeo’s love.”
Alexandra Coghlan, Opera Magazine
"Oomens’s Belinda is as vivaciously sung as her Euridice"
Craig Fuller, The Times
'Spirited' Euridice and a 'cleanly sung' Belinda
George Hall, Opera Now
Buxtehude’s 'Membra Jesu Nostri'
Pinchgut Opera, March 2023
“Soprano Alexandra Oomens sang the first aria with a wonderfully bright sound and elegantly turned decoration.”
-Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald
“Alexander Oomens adding much variety to the sound of the work and also supporting each other beautifully in many sections. Oomens unique ringing tone flew over the ensemble"
Annabelle Drumm Sydney Arts Guide
“Probably best known would Alexandra Oomens now based in London, whose pure yet richly coloured soprano voice led the group.”
Sandra Bowdler, Bachtrack
Unsuk Chin, Puzzles and Games
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Présences Festival, February 2023
“A soprano as agile as she is luminous, the Australian Alexandra Oomens shines within the orchestra in these superb pages combining brilliance, virtuosity and meticulous detail."
Michèle Tosi, Hemisphereson
“In the last part, another soprano, whose color of timbre is particularly suited to the medium part of the beginning of the work, takes the role of Alice for the suite taken from the 2007 opera Alice in Wonderland, obviously according to Lewis Carroll. Named Puzzles and Games from Alice in Wonderland , this panel of extracts with more melodic and much more Anglo-Saxon sounds (one often thinks of folk songs) that the majority of Chin's works mixes several passages from the tale without too much inventiveness , including the children's song "Twinkle, twinkle little star". In addition to a well-managed development in the orchestra, this work especially highlights the full voice of Alexandra Oomens .”
Vincent Guillemin, Res Musica
“Conversely, it is a spoken-singing voice, close to the theatre, that Puzzles and games from Alice in Wonderland requires, where Unsuk Chin reopens the box of musical wonders of his opera based on Lewis Carroll: Alexandra Oomens wins over the public's enthusiasm alongside a more raw but no less whimsical orchestra.”
Jean-Guillaume Lebrun, Concert Classic.com
“Alexandra Oomens … brings Unsuk Chin's score to life.”
Jeremiah Bigorie, Concertonet.com
“We are really in the world of Alice: humour, sudden frights, changes of atmosphere and deformations. Alexandra Oomens was remarkable in her diction and embodiment. Quite a convincing evening for me!”
Mickt, Around Classical Music
G&S Yeoman of the Guard (Elsie Maynard)
English National Opera, November 2022
“There is a standout performance from Alexandra Oomens as Elsie, the street entertainer who, although loved by Jack Point, becomes Fairfax’s wife and who delivers Elsie’s great showpiece, “Tis done, I am a bride” with a fervour that would not be out of place in Donizetti. Oomens is matched in intensity"
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Alexandra Oomens stole the show […] fizzing with character and singing the doleful ‘Tis done! I am a bride!’ with enough depth and ardour for Donizetti. The piece found its heart.”
Robert Thicknesse, Opera Now
"Alexandra Oomens wins all hearts (including Fairfax’s) as a bright-toned Elsie"
John Ellison, The Telegraph
“Alexandra Oomens (Elsie Maynard) as the romantic lead, supplies the most distinguished singing, with a bright, full tone; she’s also a touching, lively performer.”
Norman Lebrecht, Slipped Disc
"The most winning characterisation, both vocal and dramatic, comes from Alexandra Oomens in the role of Elsie, pert and clear as a bell, just as Gilbert and Sullivan would have wanted."
Nick Kimberly, Evening Standard
“Alexandra Oomens’ Elsie is a delight, she sings with great clarity of voice and truly with ease, making you wish Sullivan had thrown her a little more meat and been a bit more adventurous – she could certainly handle it."
Scott Wddell, Everything Theatre
"Alexandra Oomens particularly notable as a delightfully cheeky Elsie brimming with life and vocal strength"
Mark Ronan, The Article
Alexandra Oomens' Concert Repertoire
| Bach | B Minor Mass |
|---|---|
| Mozart | Ch’io mi scordi di te? |
| Süssmayer | Das Namensfest |
| Telemann | Die Donner Ode |
| Vivaldi | Gloria |
Alexandra Oomens' Opera Repertoire
| Bizet | Le Docteur Miracle (Laurette) |
|---|---|
| Bizet | Carmen (Frasquita) |
| Cavalli | Gli Amor di Apollo e di Dafne (Aurora) |
| Cavalli | Gli Amor di Apollo e di Dafne (Dafne) |
| Cavalli | Giasone (Isifile*/Alinda) |
| Dove | Flight (Tina) |
| Gilbert & Sullivan | Yeomen of the Guard (Elsie) |
| Gilbert & Sullivan | HMS Pinafore (Josephine) |
| Gluck | Orfeo ed Eurydice (Euridice) |
| Gretry | L’Amant Jaloux (Isabelle) |
| Handel | Semele (title) |
| Janáček | The Cunning Little Vixen (Vixen) |
| Janàček | The Cunning Little Vixen (Pepik/Woodpecker) |
| Monteverdi | L’incoronazione di Poppea (Damigella) |
| Mozart | Die Cosí fan tutte Don Giovanni |
| Offenbach | Orphée aux enfers (Cupidon) |
| Puccini | La bohème (Musetta) |
| Purcell | Dido & Aeneas (Belinda/2nd Lady) |
| Ravel | L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (La Princesse/La Chauve-Souris) |
| Salieri | Der Rauchfangkehrer (Lisel) |
| Stravinsky | The Rake's Progress (Ann Trulove) |
| * = Cover role |
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