Biography

Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia

Mezzo-soprano and actress  |  Formerly performed as Barbora Polášková

Mezzo-soprano and actress Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia was shortlisted for the 2016 Thalia Award for the title role in Carmen (Silesian Theatre, Opava) and received a longlist nomination in 2026 for her portrayal of Andronico in Mysliveček’s opera Tamerlano (J. K. Tyl Theatre, Plzeň). Her voice combines a mezzo-soprano timbre with a range extending into the dramatic soprano Fach known as Falcon.

Education and artistic career

She studied music at the Prague Conservatory and the Plzeň Conservatory and attended masterclasses in the Czech Republic and abroad, including those led by José Cura (2016) and Dagmar Pecková (2012). She furthered her education by studying languages at Charles University.

In the 2024/25 season, she made her debut at the National Theatre in Prague as Amando in Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre. She performs regularly on stages in the Czech Republic and abroad and collaborates with conductors and orchestras internationally. Her tours have taken her to Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Israel, France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Morocco.

In 2011, she performed alongside internationally acclaimed soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, at Prague’s Smetana Hall, accompanied by the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK.

In May 2023, she made her debut at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth as Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, in a production by the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň. She returned in May 2024 as Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and in 2026 as Andronico in Mysliveček’s Tamerlano.

Concert performances and recordings

She collaborates with musicologist Anja Bunzel on projects presenting lesser-known music, performing as part of these projects in Salzburg and Vienna. The programme Musical Salons in Nineteenth-Century Bohemia – Women Composers was recorded by Czech Radio and broadcast in March 2022.

She has recorded several CDs. In 2009, she released Amore eterno, featuring nineteenth- and twentieth-century opera arias, and Umění milovati (The Art of Loving), featuring music by contemporary composer Zdeněk Zahradník. In 2011, a concert recording of Songs by Alma Mahler was made at the Municipal House in Prague, conducted by Zdeněk Mácal with the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK.

In 2015, Tribute to the Jewish Soul followed, featuring Schulhoff’s Symphony for Alto and Orchestra, Menschheit, and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc and the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice alternating under conductor Alfonso Scarano). In 2017, she contributed to the symphonic fantasy Žítkovská bohyně (The Žítková Goddess) on contemporary composer Jan Vičar’s portrait album Cesta k slunci (Journey to the Sun); that same year, she recorded the song cycle The Magic Wheel of the Zodiac by Australian composer Margaret Brandman.

In 2018, she recorded a solo album of arias and songs in Vienna. Her discography also includes two albums with trumpeter Zbyněk Bartoš (2022, 2026), the song recording Music and Critic as Composer: The Songs of Eduard Hanslick (2023), and Guitarra Cantante (2017), recorded with the guitar duo Siempre Nuevo. Her collaboration with contemporary composer Josef Vejvoda, documented on the albums Versi Santi (2021) and Déjà vu (2022), also holds an important place in her discography.

Selected opera roles

Carmen (Carmen), Alceste (Alceste), Amando (Le Grand Macabre), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Andronico (Tamerlano), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Neris (Medea), Queen Gertrude (Hamlet), Idamante (Idomeneo), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Fenena (Nabucco), Kate (The Devil and Kate), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Katerina (The Greek Passion), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Ježibaba and the Foreign Princess (Rusalka), Mistress Quickly (Falstaff), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Flora (La traviata), Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Malina (The Soldier and the Dancer), Dinah (The Three Wishes, or The Vicissitudes of Life), Mara (A Night Full of Light), Ernestina (L’occasione fa il ladro), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Wanda (Polenblut), Boulotte (Offenbach’s Barbe-bleue), and others. She has also prepared the role of Dalila (Samson et Dalila). Her repertoire encompasses art songs, symphonic works, sacred music, oratorios and contemporary music.

Film and advertising

Alongside her opera career, she is also building a career on screen. In 2013, American filmmakers cast her in a Coldrex commercial. In spring 2025, she successfully auditioned for a KFC commercial produced in Canada; commercials for France’s PayFit and Slovakia’s Telekom followed in 2026. She also played Madame Dubois in the film Lady Dermacol, scheduled for release in 2027.

Teaching

Since 2015, she has taught solo singing at the Teplice Conservatory. She has also led masterclasses at a conservatory in Acre, Israel, and in Brazil.