Soprano Golda Zahra comes home to put on a free concert in her old neighborhood.
By Linda Chase
“Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa…”
The young couple was driving home after attending a performance of “The Magic Flute.” Their 4-year-old daughter, Golda, was in the back seat singing the sounds over and over.
“Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa…”
Little Golda was imitating the famous aria she had just heard sung by the character Papageno. Mozart’s colorful fairy-tale opera had awakened something inside her. The car engine had barely cooled when her parents signed her up for piano lessons.
Today, the 25-year-old Golda Zahra is a rising opera star. She chose her middle name for her stage name to honor her Persian heritage. Zahra can mean flower, beauty or princess in Farsi.
Zahra views herself as not only a singer but also a woman on a mission. In many of her performances, such as her free outdoor concert on May 24 in the Beverly Canon Gardens in Beverly Hills, she wants to win over listeners who may think opera is too highbrow and “not for them.” Her strategy is to let the beauty of the music speak for itself.
Zahra’s mantra is “Put your heart in your hand.” Whether performing for picnickers at the free concert or singing in an opera at Disney Hall, the acclaimed soprano focuses on singing everything with feeling. “Emotion is something that a lot of young singers are lacking in, so I really try to move my audience,” she said in a Zoom interview.
Backed up by a six-musician jazz ensemble, she will perform mostly popular Italian-Neapolitan songs, jazz classics and hits from Broadway and film. But in the middle of the show, she’s presenting one of her favorite arias, “Quando me’n vo,” from Puccini’s “La Boheme.”
Sung by the character Musetta in the opera, the lyrics speak of her reveling in the admiring stares of others, particularly men, as she walks down the street. “The scent of desire is all around me, it makes me happy!” she sings. Written in waltz time, the aria ends in a high B flat with a diminuendo — a high-wire act requiring superb vocal command and range. It’s not a problem for Zahra, whose upper range reaches F and beyond (octaves above high C).
Zahra discovered her vocal talents when she was 8 and already enrolled in the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles. One of her advisers suggested that she sign up for a course called Opera Choruses. She went on from there to study under the renowned vocal coach Kay Montgomery.
In 2015, Golda, 15, was the youngest grand prize winner in Classical Voice for her performance at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards. After graduating from Beverly Hills High, she left the comfort zone of 90210 to travel to the remote village of Rovigo, Italy, to enroll in its music school. That led to her becoming a protégé of Barbara Frittoli, a world-famous soprano, who took her to the next level of vocal technique and interpretation of roles.
Zahra made her operatic debut in 2020 as Violetta in an Italian production of “La Traviata.” In 2022, she was a finalist in the Voci in Barcaccia international opera competition for Rai Radio in Rome.
Today, she spends at least a week in New York every month to work with Bill Schuman, whom she describes as “the best coach on the face of the planet” for polishing her edges and giving her valuable advice about her career.
Zahra is acutely aware of the physical demands of operatic singing. “Our instrument is in our body,” she explains. She spends a lot of time in the gym, and when there’s an audition or concert coming up, she forgoes her favorite spicy foods.
The concert in the park is the first of four shows Zahra will do in the Los Angeles area through the summer. They include a program of sacred works titled “The Angelic Voice” at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica in June, “Golda Zahra in Concert” with the Dream Orchestra in July at the BroadStage in Santa Monica and performing the role of Liu in the concert version of Puccini’s opera “Turandot” at Disney Hall in Los Angeles in August.
Linda Chase is a freelance writer based in Santa Barbara specializing in the arts, travel and lifestyle. This feature is produced by the Journalism Arts Initiative, which is underwritten by donations from arts organizations and others interested in supporting excellence in arts journalism.
Golda Zahra sings pop, jazz, and opera at a free outdoor concert May 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Beverly Canon Gardens, adjacent to the Maybourne Hotel, 241 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills. Guests are encouraged to arrive early with blankets and low chairs for seating on the lawn (first-come, first-served) and are welcome to bring a picnic to enjoy during the show. The park has two large public parking lots, and there is valet parking at the Maybourne.
