Rachel Harnisch (born 1 August 1973) is a Swiss operatic
soprano.
Life
Born in Brig, Harnisch studied at the
Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with
Beata Heuer-Christen
Beata Heuer-Christen (born 27 February 1935) is a Swiss-German soprano concert singer and voice teacher.
Life
Born in Bern, Heuer-Christen is the daughter of the violinist and member of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, Caesar Christen,August Ludw ...
. In 2000, she made her debut as Pamina ''(
The Magic Flute)'' at the
Stadttheater Bern
Bern Theatre, known in the city as Stadttheater Bern, is an opera house and theatre in Bern, Switzerland. The theatre opened in 1903 and was modernised between 2015–2016 with significant structural changes made to the backstage and auditorium. ...
under the direction of Miguel Gomez-Martinez and at the
Zürich Opera House with
Franz Welser-Möst. Further engagements took her to the
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.
As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, offici ...
, to Zurich and to Santiago de Chile.
In 2004, she was Fiordiligi in ''
Così fan tutte'' in Ferrara under the direction of
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
. In Modena and Reggio nell'Emilia, she sang Micaela in ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opér ...
'', also in Bern and
Avenches
Avenches () is a Swiss municipality in the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Broye-Vully.
History
The roots of Avenches go back to the Celts. A tribe of Helvetians had built a settlement on the hills of Bois de Châtel, south of th ...
. She made her debut in Paris at the
Opéra Bastille as Pamina, directed by
Robert Wilson and under the musical direction of
Jiří Kout
Jiří Kout (born 26 December 1937) is a Czech conductor who currently works as both chief conductor of the and as a director of the Theater St. Gallen.
Coming from the eastern surroundings of Prague, Kout experienced the Soviet influence early ...
. In 2006, she sang her first Contessa in ''
Le nozze di Figaro'' in Verona. In 2007, she made her debut at the
Deutsche Oper Berlin as Pamina, followed by her first Amor in ''
Orfeo ed Euridice
' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...
'' conducted by
Leopold Hager in 2008 and Clémence in Kaija Saariaho's ''
L'amour de loin
' (''Love from Afar'') is an opera in five acts with music by Kaija Saariaho and a French-language libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera received its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival.
Saariaho, living in Paris ...
'') in Antwerp and Ghent in 2009. In 2011, she sang Blanche ''
Dialogues des Carmélites'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
In 2012, she sang Hélène d'Egmont in the world premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's ''
Le duc d'Albe'' at the
Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and Ghent. The work, unfinished by Donizetti, was completed by the contemporary composer
Giorgio Battistelli
Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale (province of Rome), he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Battistel ...
who was present at the premiere.
As a concert singer, Harnisch sang Luigi Nono's ''Prometeo-Suite,'' Tippetts ''
A Child of Our Time,'' Schumanns ''Szenen aus Goethes Faust,'' Mendelssohn's ''
Elijah '' and ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict ...
,'' Debussy's ''
Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien
''Le Martyre de saint Sébastien'' is a five-act musical mystery play on the subject of Saint Sebastian, with a text written in 1911 by the Italian author Gabriele D'Annunzio and incidental music by the French composer Claude Debussy (L.124).
B ...
,'' Haydn's ''
the Creation'' and the ''
Caecilien-Messe,'' Händel's ''
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
,'' Bach's ''
St John Passion
The ''Passio secundum Joannem'' or ''St John Passion'' (german: Johannes-Passion, link=no), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the older of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as dire ...
,'' Mahler's
Symphony No. 2 and
Symphony No. 4, Pergolesis ''Stabat Mater,'' Haydn's ''
L’isola disabitata,'' Mozart's ''
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
'' and ''
Great Mass in C minor, K. 427,'' Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9, Brahms' ''
Ein deutsches Requiem'' and Poulenc's ''Gloria'' with conductors like Claudio Abbado,
Kent Nagano and
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt or historically Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; () (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music ...
.
With
Lieder
In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French ...
recitals - together with
Irwin Gage
Irwin Gage (September 4, 1939 – April 12, 2018) was an American pianist, specializing in accompanying Lieder.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Gage studied piano, musicology and literature at the University of Michigan and Yale, and later wi ...
,
Maurizio Pollini,
Cedric Pescia
Cedric () is a masculine given name invented by Walter Scott in the 1819 novel ''Ivanhoe''.Sir Walter Scott, Graham Tulloch (ed.), ''Ivanhoe'', vol. 8 of The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, Edinburgh University Press, 1998, , "explanator ...
and
Jan Philip Schulze
Jan Philip Schulze is a German classical pianist.
Life
Schulze studied with Klaus Schilde and Michael Schäfer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and with Lev Naumov at the Moscow Conservatory.
As accompanist and chamber mu ...
- she has performed in Zurich, Geneva, Bochum, Berlin, Bern, Florence, Perugia, Rome and at the
Lucerne Festival.
Rachel Harnisch
on Schweizerfonogramm
Recordings
* ''Requiem KV 626''. Universal Music, 1999
* ''Matthäuspassion''. Musik-Forschung-Verlag, 2000
* ''Die Schöpfung''. Musik-Forschung-Verlag, 2000
* ''Stabat mater''. Universal Music, 2009
* ''Fidelio''. Universal Music, 2011
Further reading
*
References
External links
*
*
Rachel Harnisch
Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnisch, Rachel
Swiss operatic sopranos
1973 births
Living people
People from Brig-Glis
Hochschule für Musik Freiburg alumni
21st-century Swiss women opera singers