Harriet Williams
Harriet Williams studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and took part in televised Masterclasses with Barbara Bonney and Sir Thomas Allen at the Linbury Studio Theatre, and with Brigitte Fassbänder at the Wigmore Hall.
Harriet Williams made her Royal Opera début as the Erster Knappe Parisfal, her English National Opera début as Polinesso Ariodante and her début with the Royal Ballet as the featured soloist in Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au Voyage in which she sang six of Duparc’s songs on stage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Harriet Williams’ operatic roles also include the title roles in Carmen and Ariodante, Waltraute Die Walküre, Ottavia, Arnalta and Fortuna L’incoronazione di Poppea (latter recorded for BBC Television), Dido Dido and Aeneas, Mistress Quickly Falstaff, Fenena Nabucco, Hannah Kennedy Maria Stuarda, Smeaton Anna Bolena, Flora and Annina La traviata, Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro, Suzuki and Kate Pinkerton Madama Butterfly, Angelina La cenerentola, Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia, Albine Thais, Governess Queen of Spades, Nenila The Enchantress, Parseis Esclarmonde (Massenet), and Old Sister I Babette’s Feast (John Browne).
Harriet Williams’ international engagements have included Mrs Olsen Street Scene for Opera de Toulon and Marie in the Italian premiere of For You by Michael Berkeley to a libretto by Ian McEwan at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome.
In the UK Harriet Williams has sung principal roles with Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and the Early Opera Company. She sang Mab La jolie fille de Perth with Chelsea Opera Group and Mrs Olsen Street Scene (Weill) for The Opera Group, which was voted ‘Best Musical’ in the 2008 Evening Standard Theatre Awards. She also took part in a series of specially commissioned new operas for BBC 2 Television.
Harriet Williams has performed under the baton of Petr Altrichter, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Bernard Haitink, Owain Arwel Hughes, Sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Moulds, Wolfgang Seeliger and Carlo Rizzi. She has sung with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Her concert repertoire includes Bach Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion, Beethoven Ninth Symphony, Elgar Dream of Gerontius and The Music Makers, Handel Messiah, the Mahler Rückertlieder, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Saint-Saëns Requiem, Storge Jephtha, Verdi Requiem, and Vivaldi Gloria.
Harriet Williams’s recent concert engagements have included Handel’s Messiah in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Ravel’s Chansonnes Madecesse with the Northern Sinfonia at The Sage, Gateshead and on tour in Hong Kong, and Bach Cantata No 21 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Harriet Williams repeated the role of Mrs Olsen in the recent revival of Street Scene for The Opera Group. Her other recent opera performances include Mrs Rogers The Doctor’s Tale by Anne Dudley and Terry Jones in the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, and The Hostess The Pardoner's Tale at Stour Festival.
Her forthcoming engagements include Madame Larina Eugene Onegin for English Touring Opera. In Autumn 2012 Harriet Williams returns to the Royal Opera House to sing Flosshilde Der Ring des Nibelungen.
November 2011
