Amira Selim is an Egyptian soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 and opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singer.

Biography

Born in an Egyptian artistic family to pianist and piano teacher Marcelle Matta, and painter Ahmed Fouad Selim, Selim studied Italian repertoire with soprano Gabriella Ravazzi from 1993 till 1998. She graduated from the Cairo Conservatoire

Cairo Conservatoire

The Cairo Conservatoire is the primary music conservatory in Egypt. It was established in 1959 and is located in the same building complex as the Cinema Institute and the Higher Institute for Theatrical Arts, Haram, Giza, Greater Cairo, while the Cairo Symphony Orchestra is based at Cairo Opera...

 in 1999. After studying in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 she obtained her doctorate from the Cairo Academy of Arts

Academy of Arts (Egypt)

The Academy of Arts is a large educational complex in Cairo, Egypt, established by the Ministry of Culture of the then-United Arab Republic in 1959....

 in 2005.

Selim started her career in the Cairo Opera company in 1997. She has sung leading roles with them in Il barbiere di Siviglia, L'elisir d'amore

L'elisir d'amore

L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...

and Verdi's Rigoletto

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...

. She made her debut in France in the title role of Delibes

Léo Delibes

Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...

's Lakmé

Lakmé

Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...

, at the Opéra de Rennes, which she has sung at St Etienne, Bielefeld, Rouen and the Cairo Opera House. She has performed the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in the Théâtre Levallois in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Discography

• 2006 - Spirits of Mozart - Christiane Oelze, Amira Selim, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Andrey Boreyko, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Euroarts)

External links

• Biography: Amira Selim on Aliopera opera artists management