Bruno De Sá

Male soprano Bruno de Sá has appeared at several major European houses and been signed by the Warner Classics label. He is a prizewinner at competitions in both Europe and his native Brazil. Bruno de Sá Nunes was born in the São Paulo suburb of Santo André on November 29, 1989. His whole family sang in church choirs, and he began singing at the age of two. Attending choir rehearsals with his family, the toddler asked to be put on a chair so that he could sing. At seven, de Sá took up the piano and then switched to the flute, which he continued to play through his university years. He also played the clarinet and sang in children's choirs, where the top of his range exceeded that of the girl members. At home, de Sá enjoyed singing the virtuoso Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. His voice did not change in adolescence, making him a true example of the rare voice type of male soprano; he uses that designation, or sopranista, rather than countertenor, and his voice resembles neither those of countertenors nor precisely those of female sopranos, although it is close to the latter. As a university student in São Paulo, de Sá majored in music education. He had no idea that his unusual voice might suit him to a performing career until, at 22, he met harpsichordist Nicolau de Figueiredo, who introduced him to the Baroque castrato repertory. After that, he began studying voice and made rapid progress. Stating that he is ready to sing what his voice allows him to sing, without worrying about the gender of the role, de Sá did not restrict himself to Baroque repertory. Even in Brazil, he was already performing in works by composers as diverse as Bach, Wagner, Scott Joplin, and John Adams. In the mid-2010s, he moved to Europe and began promoting himself through online videos; one of these was seen by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, who was impressed with de Sá's talent and whom de Sá has cited as a major influence. In 2016, de Sá made debuts with the Lübeck Choral Academy in Handel's Messiah and Rossini's Petite Messe solennelle. The 2016-2017 season brought debuts at the Teatro São Pedro in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and at opera houses in Potsdam and Bayreuth, Germany. In 2019, de Sá joined the Opera Studio at the Theater Basel in Switzerland. Settling in Berlin, de Sá has appeared at venues of increasing importance, including the Theater an der Wien, the Drottningholm Palace Theater in Sweden, and in 2020-2021, the Salzburg Festival. He has sung both castrato repertory and female roles. The winner of the 2020 Oper! Award for best young artist, de Sá appeared that year on a Harmonia Mundi recording of Giovanni Battista Bononcini's Polifemo. Signed to Warner Classics, he issued his debut album, Roma Travestita, in 2022.
© James Manheim /TiVo