Noa Frenkel

The Israel-born contralto Noa Frenkel is an extremely versatile artist who is at home in many musical styles, but has made a name for herself especially in contemporary music. Numerous composers have written pieces for her.

Her recent opera engagements include the world premieres of Jörn Arnecke and Falk Richter’s Welcome to Paradise Lost (Kunstfest Weimar 2022), Johannes Kalitzke’s Kapitän Nemos Bibliothek (Schwetzingen SWR Festival, 2022) and Rebecca Saunders‘s Us Dead Talk Love (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2021), as well as Luigi Nono‘s Al gran sole carico d’amore (Theater Basel), the role of Her Inner Voice in the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin‘s Heart Chamber (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Subnormal Europe by Óscar Escudero (Munich Biennale), Sofia Gubaidulina’s Stunde der Seele with Windkraft – Kapelle für Neue Musik (Wiener Konzerthaus), Thierry Pécou‘s Nahasdzáán with Ensemble Variances (Opéra de Rouen), Czernowin‘s Infinite Now (Opera Vlaanderen, Nationaltheater Mannheim) and Hans Zender‘s Don Quijote de la Mancha with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt LAB).

On the concert stage she has appeared in Luigi Nono’s Guai ai gelidi mostri with the Remix Ensemble at the Casa da Musica Porto, and with the SWR Experimentalstudio in Vienna, in Salvatore Sciarrino’s Vanitas at the Dresden Philharmonic and in Pascal Dusapin’s Penthesilea with the Orchestre de Paris. She sang Bernstein’s Songfest with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the Vlaams Radiokoor, Donatoni’s Abyss at the Casa da Musica in Porto and Nono’s Prometeo with the SWR Symphony Orchestra Freiburg / Baden-Baden and Ingo Metzmacher at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Ruhrtriennale, the Lucerne Festival and the Festival d’Automne in Paris.

She has also appeared in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, his Symphony No. 3 with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem at the Ljubljana Festival, Morton Feldman’s 3 Voices in Madrid and Nono’s Guai ai gelidi mostri at the Salzburg Festival and the Wiener Festwochen.