Brenda Harris

One of America's finest sopranos, Brenda Harris has appeared in leading roles with many of the world's most prominent opera companies and orchestras. Praised for her "drop dead gorgeous singing, soaring on high, glowing with mezzo-ish warmth in lower registers", she has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy, Washington National Opera, Arizona Opera, New York City Opera, Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Canadian Opera Company, Edmonton Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, among others. In North America, she has been heard at the Metropolitan Opera (Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito), The Washington Opera (title role in Agrippina and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni), Washington Concert Opera (Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux), The Minnesota Opera (title roles in Norma, Ermione, Armida and Semiramide, Abigaille in Nabbuco, Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito,  Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux and Camilla in Orazzi e Curiazzi), New York City Opera (title role in Handel's Agrippina, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni), Austin Lyric Opera (Chrysothemis in Elektra and Katarina in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Atlanta Opera (Desdemona in Otello, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Countess in Le nozze di Figaro), Michigan Opera Theatre (Norma and Countess), Arizona Opera (Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth), Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Countess), Cleveland Opera (Tosca), Portland Opera (Lady Billows in Albert Herring and Governess in The Turn of the Screw), Chicago Opera Theater (Mrs. Julian in Owen Wingrave), Des Moines Metro Opera (Agathe in von Weber's Der Freischutz and Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth), and Utah Opera (title role in Ariadne auf Naxos and Lady Macbeth).

 

In Canada, she has sung leading roles with the Canadian Opera Company, Montreal Opera, Edmonton Opera, Opera de Quebec, and Vancouver Opera.  In Europe, Ms. Harris has appeared in Spoleto, Italy as Eva in Die Meistersinger, with Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg as Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito and the title role in Barber's Vanessa, and most recently again as Vanessa with Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

 

Ms. Harris has recorded leading roles for Newport Classic, including Scarlatti's Ishmael, Haydn's La Cantarina and The Creation, Handel's Tolomeo on Vox, and Daron Hagen's Shining Brow on Naxos.