After her most successful debut in he world creation of Aribert Reimann’ opera L’Invisible at Deutsche Oper Berlin, the opera house re-invited Swiss soprano immediately to sing the title role of Jenufa. Other operatic plans include Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Case with Antwerp opera in Brno as well as another world creation in Antwerp.

 

2016 she added two important roles to her repertoire: In Lyon she performed for the first time Rachel in La Juive in production staged by Olivier Py and conducted by Daniele Rustioni and repeated the role in Peter Konwitschni’s productin at Opéra du Rin in Strasbourg, in Antwerp and Gent she sang for the first time Emilia Marty in a new production of Janacek’s Vec Makropulos conducted by Tamas Netopil. 

 

She guested with roles like Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Michaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Marzelline in Fidelio, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Anotnia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Blanche in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Clémence in Kajia Saariaho‘s L’amour de loin, Anne Truelove in The Rake’s Progress or Hélène in Donizetti’s Le Duc d’Albe in Berne, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Essen, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Brussels, Antwerp, Florence, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Modena, Verona, Turin, Naples, Madrid, Athens, at the festivals of Glyndebourne and Lucerne or in Santiago de Chile.

 

At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan she gave her debut as Nermin in the world creation of Fabio Vacchi’s opera Teneke conducted by Roberto Abbado.

 

Rachel Harnisch works with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Douglas Boyd, Philippe Herreweghe, Kent Nagano, Dimitri Kitajenko, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roberto Abbado, John Neschling, Armin Jordan, Christian Zacharias, Stefan Soltesz, Sir Christopher Hogwood, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Jeffrey Tate and with the leading European orchestras. A close artistic partnership related her to Claudio Abbado. 

 

Recently she was heard with Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under Zubin Mehta in Florence, Verdi’s Requiem in Bern, Berg’s Lulu-Suite conducted by Ingo Metzmacher in Turin and Mahler II. conducted by Gabriele Ferro in Palermo and a Schoeck program in Winterthur with Mario Venzago.

 

She performed Schubert‘s Lazarus with Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Ingo Metzmacher in Rome, St. Pölten and Vienna, and Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle in Zurich and Ravel’s Shéhérazade in Mulhouse, Schumann‘s Das Paradies und die Peri in Grenoble and Paris, Mahler‘s 4th symphony unter Antonio Pappano in Catania, Brahms‘ Ein deutsches Requiem in Lissabon under Michael Corboz, at the BBC Proms under Marin Alsop, at the Edinburgh Festival under David Zinman and in Berne under Mario Venzago. 

 

She recorded several CDs, among them arias by W. A. Mozart and Pergolesi’s Stabat mater conducted by Claudio Abbado and Schoeck’s Besuch in Urach conducted by Mario Venazgo. Her Antonia in a production from the Grand Théâtre de Genève, her Marzelline in Fidelio from the Lucerne festival conducted by Claudio Abbado and her Hélène in Le Duc d’Albe from Antwerp are available on DVD. Recent recordings include Hindemith’s Marienleben and Mahler ‘s 4^th symphony.

 

Rachel Harnisch, who studied with Beata Heuer-Christen in Freiburg, started to teach voice at Hochschule der Künste Bern in fall 2016.

 

01/2018