SHANUL SHARMA
General Management
Susanna Stefani Caetani
susanna@onlystage.co.uk
biography
Possessing a voice capable of ‘dazzling fireworks’ (The Age), ‘laser-like precision’ (Limelight Magazine), ‘radiant high notes’ (Opera Libera) and ‘resplendent clarity’ (Sydney Morning Herald), Shanul Sharma ‘the first Indian-born Australian to perform as a principal artist in an Australian opera’ (SBS News).
Shanul launched his singing career as a lead vocalist in heavy-metal bands and released three original studio albums between 2004-2012. He explored the classical singing style as an artistic expression and relocated from Wagga Wagga to Melbourne in 2013 to commence his training as an opera singer. He has since appeared in opera houses, concert stages and arenas across Europe, Australia, Russia and the UK.
Shanul’s operatic debut came in 2014 with Opera Australia as ‘Don Ramiro’ in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. He joined the company's Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Programme (2018-2021) and among others, has performed the roles of ‘Il Conte di Libenskof’ in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (2019), ‘The Student’ in Reimann’s The Ghost Sonata (2019), 'Il Conte d'Almaviva' in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (2023) and ‘M.K. Gandhi’ in Philip Glass'Satyagraha (2023) to critical acclaim in both Sydney and Melbourne on the company's main stage. He rejoins the company to debut the role of 'Tamino' in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in November 2024.
With other companies most notably, Shanul has appeared as ‘Il Conte di Libenskof’ in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2020 & 2019) and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (2018), as the title role in Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponto at Teatro Olimpico for Festival Vicenza in Lirica (2021), 'Lindoro' in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri for Fondazione Rete, Italy (2022), ‘Gennaro’ in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia for Melbourne Opera (2022), and ‘Il Conte d’Almaviva’ in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Teatro del Giglio in Lucca , Italy (2018). In addition, he has also performed the roles of ‘Ernesto’ in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, ‘Florville’ in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino, the title role in Massenet’s Werther and the tenor soloist in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah.
In December 2023 Shanul debuted as Papa Urbano VIII in Galileo, a role written specifically for him by celebrated Australian composer Richard Mills AO for Victorian Opera.
Shanul represented the Rossini Opera Festival at LaVerdi Auditorium in Milan, under the baton of Claus Peter Flor as the tenor soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater and at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo (2018), has appeared alongside Christopher Tin with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra at the Llangollen Festival, Wales for his Grammy-Award winning composition 'Calling All Dawns' (2017), with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra for Mazda Opera in the Domain under the baton of Brian Castles-Onion AM (2019) and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for the Perth International Festival under the baton of Richard Mills AO (2023), all of which were broadcast on S4C TV and ABC Classic FM respectively.
In late 2022 Shanul toured as the lead vocalist with Eric Lévi's French new age group +eRa+ across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg playing to a combined audience of more than 60,000. He looks forward to rejoining the project in early 2025.
Shanul holds an MA in Advanced Vocal Studies from the Wales International Academy of Voice under the directorship of Mr. Dennis O’Neill CBE and is a winner of the 2017 ‘Canto Lirico’ and the ‘Rossini International Award’ from Pesaro, Italy. He remains as the only artist to have won both the awards in the same calendar year.
In 2019, he was awarded Broadway World Sydney’s ‘Best Performer in an Opera - Male’ for his performance as ‘The Student’ in The Ghost Sonata for Opera Australia.
press
"Satyagraha is also the perfect vehicle for Indian-Australian tenor Shanul Sharma (Gandhi) with his superb purity of tone, lovely sound throughout the range and almost mesmeric stage presence (yes, even in a concert performance). Visibly moved by the rapturous applause, Sharma briefly broke into tears, a touching moment."
Barney Zwartz, The Age
"Shanul Sharma’s portrayal of Pope Urban VIII was riveting as Galileo encountered the full might of the Vatican’s powers of “persuasion”. Renowned for his vocal agility and the security of the upper reaches of his tenor range, he used an unwavering command of his vocal resources to reinforce the intensity of his characterisation in an extended aria of denunciation. He was an inexorable force that demanded obedience."
Heather Leviston, Classic Melbourne
"The protagonist Mitridate, who of these impossible parts is perhaps the most impossible,....maintained the jumps well and easy, and then he gets along very well even when he has to trill."
Alberto Mattioli, La Stampa
"As the student, tenor Shanul Sharma, delivers the angular atonal energy of Reimann’s vocal line with resplendent clarity, precision and beauty of sound even when the melodic shapes are so sharp-cornered to almost to seem self-parodies."
Peter Macallum, The Sydney Morning Herald
"Sharma wields his instrument with laser-like precision and exemplary diction, in a vocally demanding role."
Angus McPherson, Limelight