Nazan Fikret Soprano
ABOUT Me
Awards and Prizes
International Opera Awards Development Fund 2017/18, 2018/19
International Opera Awards Bursary Recipient winner 2015/2016
Help Musicians Career Development Bursary winner 2016/17
Das Lied International Song Competition Finalist 2017
Making Music PADG Winner 2015
English Song Prize, GSMD Winner 2012
Susan Longfield Award, GSMD Winner 2012
The National Mozart Competition Highly commended 2011
Sponsorship & Thanks
Leslie Macleod-Miller
The Nicholas Boas Trust
The Opera Awards Foundation
Talent Unlimited, Canan Maxton & the late Keith Beresford
Help Musicians
Felicity Guinness
The Headley Trust
David Harman
The late Serena Fenwick
Nazan Fikret was born in the UK to Turkish and Irish parents and is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is a former Making Music AYCA Winner, a Britten Pears Young Artist and a recipient of an International Opera Awards Bursary.
In the current season she makes her debut with Opera North as Queen of the Night in James Brining’s production of The Magic Flute; debut in Poland at the opera house in Poznań as Königin der Nacht and Aristea in Laura Attridge’s adaptation of Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade for Vache Baroque. As a passionate educator and advocate for Arts in the community, Nazan also works closely with Learning and Participation departments at the major opera UK houses and with other community interest organisations. This season she performs at Family Sunday's for The Royal Opera, is involved in workshops for Welsh National Opera, performs in concert for Songhaven, acts and sings in workshop for Kit Theatre and continues her work as a private singing professor.
Among her recent highlights are First Lady The Magic Flute (Welsh National Opera); Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne, Opera på Skäret, Garsington Opera, Nevill Holt Festival); Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress, Teofane Ottone, Blonde The Abduction from the Seraglio, Clorinda La Cenerentola (English Touring Opera); Arasse Siroe, re de Persia and Handel’s Messiah (Nederlandse Reisopera); and Elin Agreed, a new community opera (Glyndebourne).
Nazan made her operatic debut at the age of thirteen singing Flora The Turn of the Screw in Elijah Moshinsky’s production at Wilton’s Music Hall. She went on to sing the role across Europe at venues including Aix-en-Provence, La Monnaie, Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Theater an der Wien, Nederlandse Reisopera, English National Opera and Teatro Real.
Further operatic roles include Diane Disney The Perfect American by Philip Glass, in the world première at the Teatro Real and for English National Opera; Ninetta La Périchole (Garsington Opera); Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / European Opera Centre; How the Whale Became by Julian Philips (Royal Opera House); Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice (Longborough Festival Opera); Madame Herz The Impresario (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Queen of the Night The Magic Flute (Wexford Festival Opera, Rota das Artes, Lisbon); and Governess The Turn of the Screw (Seastar Opera). Roles covered include Wendy Peter Pan by Richard Ayres, and Angelika Figaro Gets a Divorce by Elena Langer (Welsh National Opera); Fiorilla Il turco in Italia (Garsington Opera); and Queen of the Night (English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera).
Nazan has appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In-Tune in The Lads in their Hundreds, in concert with Iain Burnside; sang the soprano solo for the Turkish Hymn (Arditi) for the Turkish Presidential visit to London. Her concert appearances include Handel Messiah (Theatre Carré, Amsterdam) and recitals for Oxford Lieder, as a finalist in the Das Lied competition and as a Making Music Young Concert Artist. She also performed as a soloist aboard HMS Havengore for the Queen Elizabeth II’s Official 90th Birthday River Pageant.
Aristea / L'Olimpiade / Vache Baroque / 2024
“Among the four sopranos, all stylish and confident in the florid writing, Fikret retained the most rapturous tonal focus...”
(Opera / Yehuda Shapiro)
“Aoife Miskelly’s Licida and Nazan Fikret’s Aristea project firmly and cleanly, the latter with a noble bearing as she bemoans her lot at the outset, but stirs herself to a resounding rebuke of Licida in Act Two in some magnificently sustained high notes.”
(Opera Today / Curtis Rogers)
“Nazan Fikret – whose terrific debut as a 13-year-old Flora in The Turn of the Screw I saw many years ago – is a fine, strong, emotional singer...”
(Opera Now / Robert Thicknesse)
“...Aristea delftly sung by Nazan Fikret.” (Opera Scene / Mke Smith)
“Nazan Fikret managed to give a bit of spunk to Aristea, one of those put-upon, passive Baroque heroines. Fikret's Aristea managed to seethe under that passive acceptance, and she had a terrific revenge aria, yet her duet with Page's Megacle was finely touching.”
(Planet Hugill)
Queen of the Night / The Magic Flute / Nevill Holt Festival / 2024
“Nazan Fikret [who] powers through the Queen of the Night’s ledger lines with tremendous zest and admirable precision.”
(The Times)
“The sheer strength of Nazan Fikret’s soprano, coupled with the precision in her phrasing and some excellent coloratura in ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’, make her a formidable Queen of the Night.”
(MusicOMH)
“In this demanding role, Nazan Fikret manages the coloratura sharply...”
(The Telegraph / Nicholas Kenyon)
Anne Trulove / The Rake’s Progress / English Touring Opera / 2024
“Nazan Fikret, a silver-toned soprano whose growing reputation is built on the unaffected beauty of her voice and the intelligence with which she deploys it.”
(Opera)
“Nazan Fikret brings vocal firmness and dexterity to Anne Trulove, rounding off Act I with a redoubtable top C: one of the most dangerously exposed high notes in the whole soprano repertoire.”
(The Stage)
“It was Nazan Fikret’s strong yet touching performance as Anne Trulove that really anchored the performance.”
(Planet Hugill)
Teofane / Ottone / English Touring Opera / 2022
“Nazan Fikret gives a standout performance as the deceived and bewildered princess, captivating throughout both vocally and dramatically.”
(The Stage)
“Nazan Fikret sang with a luminous beauty that sent my eyebrows northwards… just revel in Fikret’s voice. Already an established talent, she’s en route to the top and on this showing she’s practically there.”
(Bachtrack)
“…a fine performance indeed.”
(Planet Hugill)
“Soprano Nazan Fikret makes a fearful yet beautifully crystalline princess Teofane.”
(The Guardian / Stephen Pritchard)
“Nazan Fikret proved a charming Teofane...” (Opera / Hugh Canning)
“Soprano Fikret is stand-out as the bewildered would-be bride with tremendous control and restrain...”
(British Theatre Guide / Karen Bussell)
Queen of the Night / The Magic Flute / Glyndebourne / 2020
“Nazan Fikret sparkled through the Queen of Night’s high-wire acrobatics...” (The Telegraph / Rupert Christiansen)
“...the real surprise was Nazan Fikret's Queen of the Night, ready to be heard on opera stages all round the world.”
(The Arts Desk – Best of 2020: Opera / David Nice)
“...this fast-rising soprano had all the notes and flexibility the part requires.” (Opera / Mark Valencia)
“...she nailed all the notes in both arias, flinging out stonking F sharps into the stratosphere. She sings the role so well, one hopes she won’t be typecast, because she is a fine comic actor too.”
(The Sunday Times / Hugh Canning)
“The young Nazan Fikret was a particularly stunning, ferocious Queen of Night.”
(New Statesman / Emily Bootle)
Blonde / The Abduction from the Seraglio / English Touring Opera /2019
“Nazan Fikret’s glorious Blonde... Fikret is exceptional, wonderfully secure over the role’s exacting range...”
(The Guardian / Tim Ashley)
“Rather more florid, aptly, was the fast-rising Fikret as Blonde. What pipes this young artist has! As she massaged her unguents into Stiff’s naked back it was easy to see why he desired her: he was like putty in her hands. My, but the go-to child Flora of the early noughties has come a long way. On this evidence her burgeoning career as a coloratura soprano is going to make quite a noise.”
(Opera / Mark Valencia)
“As Blonde, Nazan Fikret has the finest voice in the cast, clear and rich, with plenty of character. The production makes the most of her many comic moments, like her second act aria “With smiles and kind caresses,” complaining about Osmin’s advances, here sung as she gives him a massage, and takes out all her frustrations on his back.”
(The Arts Desk / Gavin Dixon)
“Nazan Fikret’s Blonde was another powerful piece of characterisation, salacious and wily, with a voice in full gleam. Strong acting and movement again followed musical excellence: the torturous ‘massage’ she gives Osmin whilst singing of women’s capacity to manipulate men was full of risqué mischief.”
(Bachtrack / Benjamin Poore)
“In the role of the English maid Blonde, Nazan Fikret’s gale-force performance is a brilliant comedy turn...”
(The Independent / Michael Church)
“There are strong vocals throughout... Nazan Fikret’s sparky Blonde having fun as she deals effectively with Osmin’s importunate bullying.”
(The Stage / George Hall)
Königin der Nacht / Die Zauberflöte / Opera på Skäret/ 2019
“Nazan Fikret not only delivers the murderous coloratura, but a genuine and resounding passion. A world class Queen of the Night!”
(Dagens Nyheter / Camilla Lundberg)
“The Queen of the Night has two of the most formidable arias in the opera literature and requires vocal chords of steel and stratospheric height.... Nazan Fikret was the most formidably brilliant. A voice for the grand opera houses..."
(Seen & Heard International / Göran Forsling)
“Nazan Fikret’s Night Queen is a mother, witch and egocentric primadonna, with powerful acting, and supremely devilish coloratura...”
(Svenska Dagbladet / Karin Helander)
“The Queen of the Night has her great aria in Act II and soprano Nazan Fikret swings freely and easily into the highest soprano heights in “Der Hölle Rache”.”
(Dala-Demokraten / Anne Pettersson)
