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 2023-2024 season Alexandra will be adding the roles of Pamina and Papagena to her repertoire, both with English National Opera. She will also return to Pinchgut Opera as Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo, and to the Grange Festival as Ann Trulove in The Rake’s Progress.
Recent highlights with ENO include the roles of Elsie in Yeoman of the Guard, A lady in waiting in a concert version of Gloriana, Frasquita in Carmen, Josephine in HMS Pinafore and Pepik/The Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Musetta in La Boheme. Other highlights include Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Grange Festival; 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.
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
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
Puccini, La Boheme (Musetta), ENO Concert Version (August 2022)
ENO, Fairfield Halls (August 2022)
“[…] Musetta, impressively performed by Alexandra Oomens. Her voice breathes personality, charm, and technique, all of them delightfully deployed in her Café Momus moment.”
Peter Reed, Colin’s Column
Puccini, La Boheme (Musetta), Nevill Holt Opera (June 2022)
Nevill Holt Opera (August 2022)
“He is expertly partnered by Alexandra Oomens’ Musetta, her high-flying soprano perfectly representing the character’s don’t-mess-with-me manner.”
George Hall, Opera Now Magazine
“[…] Musetta (Alexandra Oomens – a live wire with a voice of spun sugar).”
Richard Bratby, The Spectator
Haydn, Creation
Canberra International Music Festival / Australian Haydn Ensemble (April 2022)
“The undisputed vocal star of the evening was soprano Alexandra Oomens. (…) Oomens is a real star to watch for, engaging and glamorous on stage, equally at home in Janáček operatic roles and oratorio performances. Pitch-perfect, she has a clear and light, ringing tone, even in all registers.”
Vincent Plush, Limelight
“The three vocal soloists were superlative, dramatically adept and musically excellent. (…) Alexandra Oomens sang an engaging archangel Gabriel with a nimble coloratura, and silken legato through her range. The love duet between Adam (Ioelu) and Eve (Oomens) was pure flirtatious fun. Oomens’ ecstatic ornamentation portrayed an Eve breathily besotted with Adam who matched her sentiments with rapture and a twinkling eye.”
Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds like Sydney
“Soprano Alexandra Oomens was a delight with impeccable attack and intonation. For me a little bit of magic came when in Part III she explored some different tonal colours in O thou, for whom I am !”
Alan Holley, classik ON
“Of particular note was the final extended duet between Adam and Eve. In yet a more subtle example of tone painting, Haydn gives a distinctly folkish, and less operatic, character to the duets between Adam and Eve, than to those featuring the archangels. Yet Haydn embellishes simple phrases such as ‘fragrant bloom’ with sinuous melismas that traverse vast swathes of the soprano range in the space of a few seconds. This was precisely the sort of thing that Oomens seizes upon with a certain deftness, and never faltering to a screech (…).”
Aryan Mohseni, State of the Art
HMS Pinafore (Josephine) ENO 2021
English National Opera, HMS Pinafore (Josephine), 29 Oct - 11 Dec 2021
"Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens is especially impressive, singing with a new-found amplitude, ringing top notes in both her arias, and riding the chorus magnificently in the Act I finale. Not only that, her diction is immaculate. She’s not just feisty, she’s genuinely funny."
Clive Paget, The Limelight Magazine
"Musically it’s very fine [...] Thomas and Oomens are lovely in their duets and arias."
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
“Elgar Llŷr Thomas and Alexandra Oomens ooze charm and sweet lyricism”
The Times, Richard Morrison ****
“Alexandra Oomens is scintillating as Josephine”
Culture Whisperer, Claudia Pritchard ****
“Oomen’s numbers ‘Sorry Her Lot Who Loves Too Well’ and ‘The Hours Creep On Apace’ in particular show off her stunning voice, which fills and delights the gigantic auditorium”
Musical Theatre Review
“Young artists Elgan Llŷr Thomas (Ralph Rackstraw) and Alexandra Oomens (Josephine) sing the socks off the central love-story”
Alexandra Coghlan, The Independent ****
“The best music is for Josephine, with Alexandra Oomens a bright and impressive soprano whose powerful aria “A simple sailor” echoed Mozart’s Countess."
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
Cavalli The Loves of Apollo and Dafne (Dafne, Aurora)
Pinchgut Opera (May 2021)
Alexandra Oomens’ Dafne a shining young woman of fortitude and bright intelligence… Oomens doubles up spectacularly as the super-sexy Aurora, easily seducing Procris’s husband Cefalo… For Dafne, Oomens takes a firm, single-minded approach to the music up until Dafne’s melting end, and for Aurora her delectable soprano takes on all manner of seductive colours.
Deborah Jones, Limelight Magazine****
But it was the women who shone. Both Alexandra Oomens – the only cast member brought home from overseas for the show – as a scarlet Aurora and a green Dafne…
Jeremy Eccles, Bachtrack*****
Alexandra Oomens, as the licentious Aurora and the chaste Dafne, has a voice of untarnished smoothness with a joyous, youthful blush to the sound; her final note, poised at the top of a ladder after deciding to turn into a tree, had lingering beauty.
Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald****1/2
The young sopranos Alexandra Oomens and Stacey Alleaume gave the opera its heart and its most shining singing. Oomens made Dafne a woman of fortitude and bright intelligence while doubling spectacularly as the super-seductive Aurora
Deborah Jones, Opera Magazine
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 | Cosí fan tutte (Despina*) |
| Offenbach | Orphée aux enfers (Cupidon) |
| Puccini | La Boheme (Musetta) |
| Purcell | Dido & Aeneas (Belinda/2nd Lady) |
| Ravel | L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (La Princesse/La Chauve-Souris) |
| Salieri | Der Rauchfangkehrer (Lisel) |
| * = Cover role |
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