Soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer. Photo by Arielle Doneson.
Biography
The Seattle Times heralded Wendy Bryn Harmer as “a standout Senta with a big, radiant voice” in her first performances of Der fliegende Holländer with Seattle Opera. In the 2023-24 season, she returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Kitty Hart in the new production of Dead Man Walking, creates the role of Marilyn in Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith’s The Righteous in her Santa Fe Opera debut, and sings Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Utah Symphony. She also adds the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre to her repertoire. Future seasons see her debuts with the Staatsoper Hamburg and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and a return to Santa Fe Opera—as well as her debut of the title role of Turandot. Last season, she returned to Utah Opera for further performances of her sought-after characterization of Senta in Der fliegende Höllander and sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre in concert with Michigan Opera Theater in addition to returning to the Metropolitan Opera roster for its productions of Lohengrin and Der fliegende Höllander.
Sought-after in German repertoire, she has also recently excelled as Chrysothemis in Elektra with the Metropolitan Opera, Leonore in Fidelio with Opera Omaha and Boston Baroque, the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos with Palm Beach Opera, and Eglantine in von Weber’s rarely-performed Euryanthe at the Bard Music Festival. She previously joined Seattle Opera as well as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival for operas the comprise Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Her countless performances within the epic work encompass the roles of Sieglinde, Gerhilde, and Orltinde in Die Walküre; Freia in Das Rheingold; and Gutrune and Third Norn in Götterdämmerung.
In other repertoire, Ms. Harmer has sung Adalgisa in Norma, also at Palm Beach Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Houston Grand Opera, Fata Morgana in The Love for Three Oranges with Opera Philadelphia, Desdemona in Otello with the Kalamazoo Symphony, Susan B. Anthony in The Mother of Us All at Chautauqua Opera, Wanda in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito with Opera Boston, Elle in La voix humaine with Utah Opera, and Mimì in La bohème at the Utah Festival Opera.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has returned to the company’s famed stage countless other times in Parsifal, Die Ägyptische Helena, War and Peace, Khovanshchina, and Le nozze di Figaro. Her performances in Die Zauberflöte, as well as the Ring Cycle, have been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon following the company’s Live in HD broadcasts. She has also joined the company for its productions of Ariadne auf Naxos, Iolanta, Fidelio, Norma, Jenůfa, Rusalka, Pique Dame, La clemenza di Tito, Don Giovanni, and Norma.
On the concert stage, she has sung Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. With Gemma New conducing the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, she sang Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. She joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for its Schubert Festival and, at Lincoln Center, performed as a soloist in its Tribute to Renata Tebaldi. She made her New York recital debut under the auspices of The Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was presented by the George London Foundation in a recital with Ben Heppner at the Morgan Library.
