Dutch-Iranian soprano Lilian Farahani graduated cum laude with distinction from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam. 

In the 2023/2024 season, she makes her debut at the San Francisco Opera as the Bride in Kaija Saariaho’s creation ‘Innocence’, a role she already sung at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in summer 2021 and then at the Royal Opera House and at the Amsterdam Opera House. Lilian’s second CD – ‘Nomad’ – will also be released this season.

In the previous seasons she sang Zerlina (‘Don Giovanni’) with Dutch National Opera, Elvira (‘L’italiana in Algeri’) with the NTR ZaterdagMatinee and she could be heard in Aalto-Musiktheater Essen in the role of Lauretta (‘Gianni Schicchi’). On the orchestra platfom she also made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda.

Lilian has sung on the major Dutch stages with companies such as Dutch National Opera, Opera Zuid and Dutch Touring Opera, but also in the opera houses of Nancy, Bern, Essen, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the International Maifestspiele Wiesbaden. Her repertoire includes Mozart roles such as Pamina (‘Zauberflöte’), Despina (‘Così fan tutte’), Zerlina (‘Don Giovanni’) and Susanna (‘Le nozze di Figaro’). But also Gretel (‘Hänsel und Gretel’), Carolina (‘Il matrimonio segreto’), Musetta (‘La bohème’) and Frasquita (‘Carmen’). 

Lilian worked with stage directors such as Simon McBurney, Lotte de Beer, Monique Wagemakers, Laurent Pelly, Simon Stone and Theu Boermans, with conductors such as Raphaël Pichon, Antony Hermus, Ed Spanjaard, Patrick Fournillier, Kenneth Montgomery, Antonello Manacorda, Sacha Goetzel and Susanna Mälkki, with orchestras like The Hague Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Ensemble Pygmalion, London Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, The Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Essener Philharmoniker, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Besides opera, operette and the classical repertoire of Lieder, Lilian feels at home singing contemporary works. Besides Saariaho’s ‘Innocence’, she sang leading roles in ‘Anne and Zef’ by Monique Krüs, Death Knocks’ (Christian Jost) and ‘The infernal comedy’ by Michael Sturminger with the Dutch National Theater. In the spring of 2019, her debut CD ‘Woman – the making of…’ with works of Jake Heggie, was released, along with pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren.