Nicole Car

Nicole Car is one of the most outstanding young singers to emerge from Australia in recent years. Lauded by the New York Times for her “fine-grained tone and nuanced acting”, Nicole quickly established herself as one of the most brilliant stars in today‘s operatic firmament, regularly performing at top opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

In the 2019/20 season, the Australian soprano performs Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at the Opéra de Montreal and the Sydney Opera House, makes her role debut as Élisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos at the Paris Opera and returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. Performances as Mimì in La bohème at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, in the title role of Thaïs at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at the Sydney Opera House have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

In March 2020, Nicole Car founded Freelance Artist Relief Australia, a fund established to bring financial help to Australian classical singers affected by the Coronavirus crisis.

Notable recent performances have taken her to the Metropolitan Opera (Mimì in La bohème), the Paris Opera (Donna Elvira in a new staging of Don Giovanni, Mimì in La bohème, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and Micaëla in Carmen), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Mimì in La bohème, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin), the Bavarian State Opera of Munich (Eugene Onegin) the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Eugene Onegin, Marguerite in Faust, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte), the Semperoper Dresden (Mimì, Fiordiligi) and the Opéra de Marseille (Violetta in La traviata and Marguerite in Faust). For Opera Australia she performed the title roles of La traviata, Thaïs and Luisa Miller (winning her first Helpmann Award for the latter); Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro; with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra she sang her first Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes in July 2019. In August 2019, she performed in recital alongside Etienne Dupuis and pianist Jayson Gillham in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.

After completing her Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts, Nicole Car won the 2007 Herald-Sun Aria; she was the 2012 winner of the ASC Opera Awards and the 2013 winner of the international Neue Stimmen competition in Germany. Her professional operatic debut occurred in 2009 performing Donna Anna in Victorian Opera’s Don Giovanni.

Since then, Nicole’s many roles for Opera Australia have included Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Micaëla (Carmen), Mimi (La bohème), Marguerite (Faust), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Leila (Les pêcheurs de perles), and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni). She has sung Donna Anna for West Australian Opera and Adalgisa in Norma for Victorian Opera in Melbourne.

In 2014, she made her American debut as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro for Dallas Opera and her European début the following year as Tatyana for Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Nicole is in increasing demand as a recording artist. Her solo album of operatic arias The Kiss (ABC Classics) débuted at No. 1 on the Australian classical charts. In 2018 her second solo album Heroines was released on ABC Classics in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She is also appearing in the Deutsches Requiem for the MSO (ABC Classics), as featured artist on Rule Britannia! for the TSO (ABC Classics), as Micaëla in Carmen for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour (CD/DVD – Opera Australia) and as Mimì in La bohème (DVD/Blu-Ray – Royal Opera House Covent Garden).