Amelia Farrugia is one Australia’s best-loved sopranos. Since her opera debut in 1994, she has sung many leading roles for Opera Australia, performed with all the ABC Orchestras and appeared internationally with distinguished conductors Richard Bonynge, Edo de Waart, Richard Hickox, Carlo Felice Cillario, Markus Stenz, Simone Young, Emmanuel Plasson, Paul Dyer, Andrea Licata, Alexander Briger, Brad Cohen, Robin Ticciati, Giovanni Reggioli and composers Gian Carlo Menotti, Richard Mills and George Palmer.
Amelia is renowned for her dazzling portrayal of Manon in Massenet’s Manon, her show-stopping Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (performed for Glyndebourne Festival Opera UK and OA’s production recorded by ABC Classics), her Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme, Maria Corona in Menotti’s Saint of Bleeker Street (Spoleto Festival Italy), Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera for which she received a Green Room Award (2008).
Amelia’s debut solo recording, Joie de vivre! (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Briger) was released by Universal Music/ Decca in Australia in 2005 and the UK in 2006 and nominated for a Classical Aria (2006). Amelia is the first Australian solo artist to record on the prestigious Decca label since Dame Joan Sutherland in 1959. Amelia is a television favourite, most recently appearing in Carols in the Domain and Opera Australia’s La Boheme (ABC). She was honoured with an invitation to perform for Pope Benedict XVI in the internationally televised Final Mass for World Youth Day and HRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (2008). Amelia also performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in a televised performance under the baton of Maestro Edo de Waart.
A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Amelia has won many major singing competitions including Sydney Eisteddfod’s McDonald’s Operatic Aria (1994), The Herald Sun Aria (1994) and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Australia and New York (1994-1995). She was awarded NSW Young Achiever of the Year (1996). Amelia is a generous supporter of many charities and donates her time as Ambassador for the Sydney Eisteddfod, as a member of the Council of Patrons for Pacific Opera and Ambassador for St Lucy’s School, Wahroonga.
2011 sees a long run of performances as The Merry Widow for Opera Australia as well as concert appearances with the Sydney Symphony, Sydney Philharmonia and for Opera Australia in Beijing. In early 2012, Amelia will join the roster of soloists at The Metropolitan Opera, New York.
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