A recent graduate of the International Opera Studio of Staatsoper Hamburg, Israeli soprano Na'ama Shulman is one of the most exciting young sopranos to debut on the world stage.
After receiving a Master’s degree with Honors in classical singing at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, she won a place on the prestigious Meitar Opera Studio program of the Israeli Opera. During her studies, she was the winner of multiple awards and competitions, including the Tavor-Fintz Memorial Competition, the Charles Schneider Competition and the International Opera Competition in Jerusalem. There, she also made her debut singing Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, and later performed the roles of Epponina in Giuseppe Sarti’s Giulio Sabino, and Leatitia in Menotti’s The old maid and the thief. As a result of her successes, she was then invited to sing Clorinda in La Cenerentola in the 2017 Piccolo Opera Festival in Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy.
Na’ama has also performed extensively across her home country, including Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) as part of the Jerusalem Lyric Opera Studio, and as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) “an empathic, appealing and convincing Pamina“ and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) for The Jerusalem Opera.
In 2018, Na’ama was plucked directly from her studies to be a member of the International Opera Studio of Staatsoper Hamburg, where she performed mainstage roles such as Juliette (Die tote Stadt), Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), Bacchis (La belle Hélène), Une voix céleste (Don Carlos) “a great, moving vocal performance”, Lidochka (Moscow, Cheryomushki) “a delightfully youthful Lidochka, whose voice ripples clearly, like a natural spring” , Königin der Trolle (Die beiden Fiedler), 1. Knappe (Parsifal) and Anna (Nabucco) in Kirill Serebrennikov’s critically acclaimed new production in 2019.
Na'ama is highly in demand for New Music, and has already in her short career created several world-premiere roles, including Hilde in Max-Lukas Hundelshausen’s Freiberg as a special guest in Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Die Frau in Die Nacht der Seeigel for Staatsoper Hamburg, and Zenobia in Grete Minde at Theater Magdeburg.
Na’ama has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Kent Nagano, Paolo Carignani, Nathan Brock, Ricardo Minasi, Roland Kluttig, Christoph Gedschold, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Matteo Beltrami, Anna Skryleva, Svetoslav Borisov, Pablo Mielgo, Paolo Spadaro, and has performed with such orchestras as the Ramat Gan Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica De Les Illes Balears, Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, Israel NK Orchestra, and Concerto Hamburg.
Since 2021, Na'ama has been a member of the ensemble of Theater Magdeburg. Roles performed so far include Zerlina (Don Giovanni) “An enchanting Zerlina, who won over with her bell-like, always pure intonation soprano”, 1. Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Esmeralda (The bartered bride), and Niece 2 (Peter Grimes).
In season 22/23, she continues her engagement there in several principal roles including Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Diana (Orpheus in der Unterwelt), and the title role in Rimsky Korsakov's "The golden cockerel".