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The English mezzo-soprano, Harriet Williams, obtained her Arts Educational diploma after 3 Year Diploma in Drama Course; and her Post-Diploma Vocal Training from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Harriet Williams made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden début as Erster Knappe in Parsifal, returning to perform Flosshilde Der Ring des Nibelungen (2012) and Girl Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (February-March 2015). Also at the ROH she was the featured soloist in her début with The Royal Ballet performing six Duparc songs in L’Invitation au voyage. At English National Opera she made her début as Polinesso Ariodante.
Her repertoire includes title roles in George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare, Carmen and G.F. Handel's Ariodante, Waltraute in Die Walküre (Longborough Festival Opera, June 2013), Bradamante in G.F. Handel's Alcina, Ottavia, Arnalta and Fortuna in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Fenena in Nabucco, Hannah Kennedy in Maria Stuarda, Smeton in Anna Bolena, Flora and Annina in La traviata, Marcellina in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Albine in Thaïs, Pauline and Governess in Queen of Spades (Royal Ballet And Opera, November 2018-January 2019), Nenila in The Enchantress, Parseis in Esclarmonde, Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin, Mab in La jolie fille de Perth, Erda in Das Rheingold (The Arcola, August 2019), Zweite Norn in Götterdämmerung (Saffron Opera, September 2017), Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde (Longborough Festival Opera, 2015) and Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande.
Harriet Williams has sung principal roles with Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, the Early Opera Company and the Chelsea Opera Group. She has performed under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Sir Bernard Haitink, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sakari Oramo, Vladimir Jurowski, Petr Altrichter, Sir Neville Marriner, Carlo Rizzi, Christian Curnyn, Christopher Moulds and Wolfgang Seeliger. She has sung with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. She appeared as Flosshilde in a semi-staged concert performance of Das Rheingold with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall.
Major concert performances include L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Ravel’s Chansons madécasses with the Northern Sinfonia at The Sage, Gateshead and on tour in Hong Kong, and J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 21 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Her concert repertoire includes J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 21, Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248 and Matthäus-Passion BWV 244; L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and The Music Makers;' G.F. Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Harmoniemesse; Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder; Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah; W.A. Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Requiem; Ravel's Chansons madécasses, Rossini's Petite messe solennelle and Stabat Mater; Camille Saint-Saëns' Requiem, Storge's Jephtha, Verdi's Requiem and Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria.
Harriet Williams’s international engagements have included Mrs Olsen in Street Scene with Opéra de Toulon and in The Opera Group’s award winning production at Théatre du Châtelet and Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Maria in the Italian première of For You by Michael Berkeley at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome. Amongst other contemporary roles she has performed the Old Sister 1 in Babette’s Feast (John Browne) and Mrs Rogers in The Doctor’s Tale by Anne Dudley and Terry Jones in the ROH Linbury Theatre and The Hostess in Alan Ridout’s The Pardoner’s Tale. She also took part in a series of six specially commissioned new operas for BBC 2 Television, singing the roles of Katerina and Girl.
Recent engagements include Mrs Olsen in Street Scene at the Teatro Real in Madrid (January-May 2018) and Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Monaco (February 2020), Fricka in Die Walküre for Grimeborn Opera Festival (July 2021), soloist in G. Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with the Lambeth Orchestra, Brangâne in Tristan und Isolde Act 2 with The Ealing Symphony Orchestra (February 2022), soloist in E. Elgar's Sea Pictures and Sheldon Bair's Homefront 1944 with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra (November 2022) and the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with The London Opera Company (October 2022) and soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the Tonbridge Philharmonic Society (November 2022). Most recent engagements include Second Norn in Götterdämmerung in Longborough Festival Opera’s Ring Cycle (May-June 2023; April-July 2024) and Madame Ulrica Arvidsson in Un ballo in maschera with the Chelsea Opera Group; Mrs Grose cover in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw at English National Opera (September-October 2024); Erda in Siegfried with The London Opera Company at Sinfonia Smith Square (November 2024); Gertrude cover in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel at Royal Ballet And Opera Covent Garden (December 2024-January 2025). She currently lives in London, England. |
