Yvette Bonner

Yvette Bonner studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the Dip. RAM, the Academy’s highest award for performance and the Blyth-Buesst Operatic Prize.  She was the winner of the Emmy Destinn Award for Young Singers in Czech opera and song.

Yvette Bonner made her début with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Hermione in Strauss’ Die Aegyptische Helena under Christian Thielemann, followed by Esmeralda The Bartered Bride under Sir Bernard Haitink and Sir Charles Mackerras.

International engagements include the role of  Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Alice in Alexander Knaifel’s  Alice in Wonderland and more recently Sarah in Michel Van Der Aa’s After Life, both world premieres commissioned by and staged at the Netherlands Opera.  At the Megaron in Athens she performed the role of Clarine in Rameau’s Platée for the English Bach Festival under Jean Claude Malgoire and for Vlaamse Opera she sang Tina in the Glyndebourne production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight.  For Houston Grand Opera she sang Jennie Hildebrand in Francesca Zambello’s production of Street Scene, which was also filmed.

Yvette Bonner’s roles in the UK and Ireland include Hermia (Fleurette) Barbe Bleu (Offenbach) at Grange Park Opera, Elinore in the British Première of Martinů’s The Knife’s Tears for Second Movement, Eurydice in Monteverdi’s Orfeo for the English Bach Festival, Oscar Un ballo in Maschera for Castleward Opera, and Gretel Hansel and Gretel for Cork Opera. For Garsington Opera she has sung Semele Die Liebe der Danae, First Maid Die Aegyptische Helena and Emmie Albert Herring.  Other engagements have included Susanna and Barbarina The Marriage of Figaro for Savoy Opera. Yniold Pelléas et Mélisande for English National Opera, Shepherd Boy Tannhäuser for Opera North, Flora The Turn of the Screw for Welsh National Opera, and Zerlina Don Giovanni in concert under Sir Colin Davis.

Yvette Bonner received outstanding critical acclaim for her Wigmore Hall concert début, singing Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.  For the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra she has sung Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and she is a regular RPO soloist.  Other concert highlights include Carmina Burana and Solveig in Peer Gynt for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Matthew Passion for English Chamber Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah and Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock for the OSJ (formerly the Orchestra of St John’s Smith Square) and Messiah under Jean-Claude Malgoire at the Festival de Reims.  For the Russian State Orchestra in Moscow she sang an Opera Gala including arias by Mozart, Donizetti, Puccini and Dvorak.

Yvette Bonner’s recordings with Chandos Records include Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride under Sir Charles Mackerras which received a Grammy nomination, Emmie Albert Herring under Richard Hickox and The Marriage of Figaro for David Parry. She also sang on the recording of  the Garsington Opera production of Richard Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae under Elgar Howarth. 

Yvette Bonner’s recent engagements include Monica in The Medium with Second Movement in Northern Ireland, Elinore in Martinu’s The Knife’s Tears in Brno and Prague, Sarah in the revival of Michel Van Der Aa’s After Life at the Netherlands Opera, the Opera de Lyon and London’s Barbican Centre, Iseut Le Vin Herbé by Frank Martin for Opera OT, Rotterdam, Atila Eliogabalo (Cavalli) at Grange Park Opera, and the World Premiere of Grace by Joep Franssens with NPS Radio and Dutch Television in the Netherlands. 

Yvette Bonner’s forthcoming engagements include ‘Too Hot to Handel’ with the Armonico Consort under Christopher Moulds, The Fairy  Magical Night for ROH2 in the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera House, Alice  in the world premiere of Circus Tricks for Tete a Tete, and further performances as Sarah After Life at the 2012 Melbourne Festival.

 November 2011