Wendy Bryn Harmer
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 2024-25 season, she makes both her European and South American debuts as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at Staatsoper Hamburg and the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, respectively. She makes role debuts as Turandot with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw in a return to Santa Fe Opera, joins the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Fidelio, and sings her first performances of Verdi’s Requiem with Orlando Opera. Last season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Kitty Hart in the new production of Dead Man Walking, created the role of Marilyn in Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith’s The Righteous in her Santa Fe Opera debut, and sang Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Utah Symphony. She also added the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre to her repertoire.
Sought-after in German repertoire, she has recently excelled as Chrysothemis in Elektra with the Metropolitan Opera, Santa in Der fliegende Holländer with Seattle Opera and Utah 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, Detroit Opera, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival for operas the comprise Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Her countless previous 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, Lohengrin, Der fliegende Holländer, Norma, Jenůfa, Rusalka, Pique Dame, La clemenza di Tito, and Don Giovanni.
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.
