Slovenian soprano Rebeka Lokar first attended music school in her hometown of Maribor and later refined her technique under the guidance of Italian baritone Mauro Augustini. Beginning her career as a mezzo-soprano, she made her debut in 2005 as Clotilde (Norma) at the Slovenian National Theatre Maribor (SNG Maribor). After receiving a scholarship from the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto in 2007 she appeared in numerous other roles including Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Mistress Benson (Lakmé), Marthe (Faust), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Mercedes (Carmen) and Tisbe (La cenerentola), a role with which she toured Japan and later Umbria. A number of larger roles followed, including Amneris (Aida), Fenena (Nabucco) and Maddalena (Rigoletto). During the 2010/2011 season, she appeared as Flora (La traviata) and Giovanna (Rigoletto) at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice.
In 2010 her voice began to shift into lyric dramatic soprano range, and after numerous concerts and recitals Rebeka Lokar made her debut in 2012 as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) at the Teatro Regio di Torino and as Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) at the summer festival in Terni, Italy. She also appeared as soprano soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the National Opera of Maribor in March 2013, and as Abigaille (Nabucco) at the Lamke Como Music Festival (Italy).
She later sang the roles of Médée in Cherubini’s eponymous work at the Bielefeld Opera (Germany), and Amneris (Aida) for the SNG Maribor’s tour of Japan. More roles followed, including Minnie in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West at SNG Maribor Opera, Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) at the Open Air Festival in Braunschweig (Germany), Abigaille (Nabucco) at the Taormina Opera Stars festival in the renowned Greek amphitheater in Taormina (Sicily), Hélène in the original French version of Verdi’s I vespri siciliani under the direction of Nikša Bareza at the Croatian National Theater Zagreb (HNK Zagreb) and the title role of Puccini’s Turandot, a part which she sung on numerous occassions including at the distinguished Puccini festival in Toscana (Torru del Lago), in Sassari, Torino, HNK Zagreb and at the Perez Galdos Theater in Las Palmas. In February 2017 she made her debut in the demanding role of Cio-Cio-san in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Coccia in Novara (Italy), and immediately followed that with Leonore in Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Maribor Opera and Leonore in La forza del destino. At the prestigious Verona Arena she has sung in the roles of Turandot, Aida and Abigaille, and performed the latter role also in Maribor for a new production of Verdi’s Nabucco in 2018.
