WNO are pleased to welcome our latest Associate Artist, Harriet Eyley into the WNO family for 2019. Getting straight to work with appearances as soloist in our ever-popular A Night in Vienna concerts across Wales – an ‘easy’ introduction into life at WNO, perhaps! – Harriet joins us as a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, moving to Cardiff to take up this opportunity.
Originally from Derbyshire she has already performed for our Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. During the 2017/2018 season she sung the roles of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte at Garsington Festival Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist; Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Vixen Sharp-Ears The Cunning Little Vixen for the Royal College of Music. Other engagements have included Serpetta in La finta giardiniera at the London Handel Festival and an appearance on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.
Bachtrack reviewed the RCM productions and said of her performances:
The Cunning Little Vixen, November 2017Of the cast, Harriet Eyley gave a sparky performance as Vixen, subversive in the farmyard and touching as she discovered first love. She was generous with her higher register and there’s clear technique behind her singing
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, March 2018Tytania (Harriet Eyley, magnetic, big-voiced and bright-toned)
Opera magazine, February 2018As the Vixen, the soprano Harriet Eyley displayed thrilling brightness and vocal intensity, conveying the character’s vulnerability as well as her confidence and insouciance. In the moonlit interlude her soaring lyrical lines blazed with passion.
WNO’s Associate Artists are traditionally appointed through a process whereby our Artistic Administration department visit colleges around the country to see the upcoming talent, and discover a young singer to join the Company and gain invaluable experience in a number of performance roles. Previous Associate Artists include David Soar, Camilla Roberts and Robin Tritschler, among many others who have gone on to successful careers around the world. WNO is proud to be able to provide this platform, this step up into the opera world for young talent from around the UK which can be such a daunting prospect:
Student sound-bites, BBC Music Magazine, 6 September 2018 (Harriet Eyley 26, soprano, Artist Diploma, RCM)Deciding whether or not to stick with music is a challenge. I just have to believe I can do it
Following her appearances at the Vienna concerts where she has been rapturously received, she makes her WNO main stage debut in Un ballo in maschera on Wednesday 6 March in Birmingham, before singing the role of Norina in our brand new production of Don Pasquale on its tour of smaller venues in England and Wales.
Harriet is supported by the Chris Ball Bursary, the WNO Sir John Moores Award and the WNO Endowment Fund