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INTRODUCTION
At just 27, bass-baritone Liam James Karai is fast becoming one of opera’s most exciting young voices. Known for his rich, flexible tone and magnetic stage presence, the Hong Kong-born singer — of Scottish, Irish, and Indian heritage — has already performed at major houses across Europe. In this interview, he talks about his journey into opera, his creative process, and the passion that drives his growing international career.
BIOGRAPHY
Bass-baritone Liam James Karai is celebrated for his elegant tone, striking flexibility, and dark timbre. Hong Kong-born and of Scottish, Irish, and Indian heritage, Liam continues to make acclaimed debuts across leading European opera houses, captivating audiences with his powerful voice and compelling stage presence.
Liam's 2025/26 season begins with a debut with the WDR Orchestra, performing the role of First Nazarene in their tour of Salome. In the spring, he returns to Teatro di San Carlo in Naples to debut the role of Marcello in La Bohème. He will also make house debuts with Opera North as Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, with Teatro Municipal de Santiago as Jochanaan in Salome, and with Nederlandse Reisopera in the world premiere of HAGAR. The season concludes with his Glyndebourne debut as Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos.
The 2024/25 season marked a significant period of growth and success for Liam. Highlights included house debuts at Teatro di San Carlo, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Semperoper Dresden, and the Polish National Opera. He also returned to the Hamburg Staatsoper as a guest artist, following his time as a member of their International Opera Studio during the 2023/24 season. Throughout the year, Liam demonstrated remarkable versatility, performing roles such as Escamillo in Carmen and Angelotti in Tosca at the Polish National Opera, Schaunard in La Bohème at Erl, and First Nazarene in Strauss’s Salome in Hamburg, Naples, and with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano.
During the same season, he was a finalist in several prestigious international competitions, including the Tenor Viñas Competition in Barcelona, Operalia in Mumbai (where he received a finalist prize), and the Riccardo Zandonai Competition in Riva del Garda, where he was also a prize winner. These achievements followed earlier success as a finalist in the 41st Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and second prize winner at the 4th Antonina Campi Singing Competition.
In the 2023/24 season, Liam was a member of the International Opera Studio at Hamburg Staatsoper. His roles there included Angelotti in Tosca, Hobson in Peter Grimes, Figaro (cover) and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, and Alcindoro in La Bohème. He also performed Escamillo in Carmen at Oper Frankfurt and Staatstheater Mainz, appeared as Horatio in a concert version of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet at the Salzburg Festspiele, and sang in new productions of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Oper Leipzig and Staatsoper Hamburg.
Concert highlights included Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as Bass Soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Hans Graf, two galas with the Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears conducted by Pablo Mielgo, and his Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal debut in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Kent Nagano.
Prior to the 2023/24 season, Liam performed bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, and made his Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal debut with excerpts from Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and La jolie fille de Perth. He has also appeared with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, performing music from Le Nozze di Figaro and La Cenerentola.
Liam completed both a Master of Music and a Postgraduate Diploma on full scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, studying under Quentin Hayes. During his time there, he received the Sir John Tomlinson Scholarship and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Scholarship, won the 2021 Frederic Cox Award, the Robin Kay Memorial Prize, and the RNCM Silver Medal. He also received the Joaninha Trust Award and was a prize winner in the Clonter Opera Prize.
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INTERVIEW
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Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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