BIOGRAPHY
Praised for performances of “dangerously real” vulnerability (Bachtrack), Juliana Zara strives to unite vocal virtuosity with theatrical imagination. At the beginning of the 2025/26 opera season, Zara made her house debut at Theater an der Wien as the Cheshire Cat in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, a portrayal singled out as a Leuchtfeuer of the evening (FAZ). In concert, Zara recently made her role debut as Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra under Patrick Hahn, and revived Unsuk Chin’s Puzzles and Games with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Enrico Onofri.
“Her Lulu … was an event that made waves throughout Germany in the recent season. In Ewa Maria Höckmayr's production, the American coloratura soprano juggles with male fantasies and plays them against each other with virtuosity. Zara's Lulu moves across the stage with the infinite lightness of being until she gets caught up in the mills of sex work and is physically and emotionally crushed. The compelling acting is matched by stupendous vocal merits. Juliana Zara's voice is also ideal for this delicate role. Slender, fluid and with weightlessly dabbed top notes, she exuded that rare vocal mercury which the role absolutely needs and which makes it a phenomenon in the first place. Not in a metropolis, but on the edge of the Odenwald.”
DIE DEUTSCHE BÜHNE
