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 2022/2023 season, she will make her Royal Opera House debut in London, where she will once again play the role of The Bride in Kaija Saariaho’s opera ‘Innocence’; a role in which she could already be heard at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2021. Another debut in autumn 2022 is a collaboration with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. In the 2021/2022 season 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’).

In recent years, 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. 

Since March 2017, Lilian is represented by IMG Artists, Paris.