Wendy Bryn Harmer

The Seattle Times heralded Wendy Bryn Harmer as “a standout Senta with a big, radiant voice” for her first performances of Der fliegende Holländer with Seattle Opera. In the 2024–25 season, she will make her European and South American debuts as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at Staatsoper Hamburg and Teatro Municipal de Santiago, respectively. Additional engagements include role debuts as Turandot with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw with Santa Fe Opera, a return to the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Fidelio, and 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 performed Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Utah Symphony. She also added Brünnhilde in Die Walküre to her repertoire.

Sought after in German repertoire, Harmer has recently excelled as Chrysothemis in Elektra with the Metropolitan Opera, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer with Seattle Opera and Utah Opera, Leonore in Fidelio with Opera Omaha and Boston Baroque, the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos with Palm Beach Opera, and Eglantine in Weber’s rarely performed Euryanthe at the Bard Music Festival. She has previously performed Wagner’s Ring Cycle with Seattle Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Detroit Opera, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Her repertoire for the Ring Cycle includes Sieglinde, Gerhilde, and Ortlinde in Die Walküre; Freia in Das Rheingold; and Gutrune and the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung.

In other repertoire, Harmer has sung Adalgisa in Norma with 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 with Utah Festival Opera.

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Harmer has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in Parsifal, Die Ägyptische Helena, War and Peace, Khovanshchina, and Le nozze di Figaro. Her performances in Die Zauberflöte and the Ring Cycle have been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon following the company’s Live in HD broadcasts. Additional appearances with the company include Ariadne auf Naxos, Iolanta, Lohengrin, Der fliegende Holländer, Norma, Jenůfa, Rusalka, Pique Dame, La clemenza di Tito, and Don Giovanni.

On the concert stage, Harmer has sung Vaughan Williams’s 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 conducting the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, she performed Beethoven’s Ah! perfido and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. She also sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for its Schubert Festival and appeared as a soloist at Lincoln Center 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.