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 will play the role of The Bride in Kaija Saariaho’s opera ‘Innocence’ both at Dutch National Opera and San Francisco Opera; a role in which she could already be heard last season at the Royal Opera House in London and in 2021 at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Lilian’s second CD – ‘Nomad’ – will also be released this season. 

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. In 2023, she made her Royal Opera House debut in London. 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 Gianandrea Noseda, Raphaël Pichon, Antony Hermus, Ed Spanjaard, Patrick Fournillier, Kenneth Montgomery, Antonello Manacorda, Sacha Goetzel and Susanna Mälkki, with orchestras like the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, 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.