AUTHOR: Deborah Humble

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Mezzo-Soprano Deborah Humble is one of Australia’s best-known and most successful opera singers, and your guide to the 2016 Wagner Ring Cycle in Melbourne.

After gaining a Bachelor of Music from the University of Adelaide and a Masters Degree from the University of Melbourne Deborah was a member of the Victoria State Opera Young Artist Programme. Having been a Principal Artist for both Opera Australia and The State Opera of Hamburg she has embarked upon a freelance career which takes her all over the world.

Recognised internationally for her performances of Verdi and Wagner, Deborah’s recent engagements include Erda in Das Rheingold with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Brangaene in Tristan and Isolde with the Mexico City Symphony, Amneris in Aida for Opera Australia, Alisa in Lucia di Lamermoor for the Theatro Mario del Monaco in Treviso, Erda in Siegfried for the Boston Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem at the Sage Concert Hall in the UK, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore, Elgar’s The Kingdom for the Melbourne Bach Choir and Ring Cycles in Hamburg, Halle, Bari, Ludwigshafen and Melbourne.

Future engagements include Mary in The Flying Dutchman with Opera Lille, Erda in Siegfried with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, recorded for Naxos, Venus in Tannhauser in Edinburgh and concert engagements in Auckland and Perth.

Her recordings include Clarissa in The Love for Three Oranges with Opera Australia for Chandos, a complete Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Hamburg State Opera released on the Oehms label, Offenbach’s La Belle Helene with the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris for Deutsche Gramophone and Mozart’s Il Sogno di Scipione for EMI.

Deborah was a recipient of Australia’s prestigious Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship, a finalist in the 2008 International Wagner Competition in Seattle, and was recently included in the Who’s Who of Australian Women. This year Deborah returned to Australia to act as a mentor in The Dame Nellie Melba Trust Programme for young opera singers and to adjudicate The City of Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Aria Scholarship.

Masterpieces in Melbourne

 30th January, 2015

Melbourne audiences are being treated to two operatic masterpieces in the first months of 2015. Weber’s rarely performed work Der Freischutz (loosely translated as “The Marksman”), not seen in Melbourne since 1969, is being presented by Melbourne Opera at the Athenaeum Theatre opening on January 31. In February, Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman)…Read More

Sgura sings Scarpia: interview

 3rd November, 2014

Australian audiences recently had the pleasure of experiencing the vocal talents of Italian baritone Claudio Sgura singing the role of Iago in Verdi’s Otello. That was in Sydney. Now it is Melbourne’s turn to see this charismatic artist on stage in a new production of Tosca. Opening night at the State Theatre on November 12 will…Read More

Siobhan Stagg home from Europe

 8th July, 2014

On the eve of her first visit to Australia for fifteen months, soprano Siobhan Stagg tells Deborah Humble she still calls Australia home, as she talks about about her forthcoming engagements, and the joys and challenges of a demanding performance schedule. Growing up in Mildura as the middle child between two brothers, Siobhan credits her…Read More

Robert Mitchell: farewell to the Opera

 25th May, 2014

Opera Australia’s Robert Mitchell is saying farewell to the operatic stage after 41 years in the spotlight. As the tributes roll in, the singer shares some memories with fellow artist Deborah Humble of a career that has included playing slaves to royalty, priests to devils, courtesans, tragics, comics, lyrics, ridicules, drunks, dukes and yes, even…Read More

Curtain-raiser for Carmen

 11th May, 2014

Bizet’s Carmen is one of the best-known and most loved operas of all time, and Opera Australia is taking a festive approach to its Melbourne season. There’s a Spanish mezzo in the title role but the strong soprano role of Michaela is to be sung by a “new” Australian. Deborah Humble has the story of…Read More

Jessica: Lucia, Violetta

 5th May, 2014

Victorian Opera must be congratulating itself on signing up Jessica Pratt to play the lead role of Violetta in La Traviata especially considering her recent triumphant debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala, Milan. Friend and fellow-diva Deborah Humble, a regular writer for our site, was there. “She did it! Wow  … so many…Read More

Director Cameron Menzies

 28th April, 2014

Multi-talented Melbourne director Cameron Menzies has recently been very much in demand and it is not surprising that he is  in London directing a new production of Don Giovanni for Britain’s foremost chamber opera company DivaOpera. Deborah Humble interviewed Menzies just before the opera’s opening in London on April 30 and talks about the director’s…Read More

Sam Sakker: Friends with Benefit

 3rd March, 2014

Australian opera singer Sam Sakker is heading for Covent Garden and fellow opera singers Emma Matthews, Deborah Humble, and Jose Carbo, plan a benefit concert for him in Melbourne in April. Deborah tells why. Australia’s geographical isolation has always meant that young singers have had to travel far from home seeking to broaden their musical…Read More

Daniel Carter: At Home in Hamburg

 27th February, 2014

As Australian conductor Daniel Carter takes up his new position in Hamburg Deborah Humble catches up with him to discuss the life in the city and the path that led him there. Sydney born Daniel Carter began learning the piano at age 4, started composing at 11, and went to his first opera at 14.…Read More

A new Australian Lucia debuts at La Scala

 11th February, 2014

  “She did it! Wow  … so many bravas!” opera singer Deborah Humble reported from Milan’s La Scala after fellow-Australian Jessica Pratt’s debut in the role of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, fifty years after Joan Sutherland made a sensational debut in this Donizetti opera. Deborah tells more … The production is directed by Mary…Read More