Emilie Renard

Anglo-French mezzo-Soprano Emilie Renard exploded onto the international performing scene by winning first prize in the 2013 Antonio Cesti Competition at the Innsbruck Festival. A Britten Pears Young Artist in 2010, Emilie Renard’s prowess as a recitalist was further demonstrated by her award of the Premier Prix de la Mélodie Française, at the 22nd Concours International de Chant de Marmande, where she also carried off the overall First Prize for Women’s Voices.

Having already made her professional debut in Richard Jones’ famed production for English National Opera of Martinů’s Julietta, her repertoire embraces five centuries of music, from Amore in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (“… a remarkable convincing teenage boy”) and Purcell’s Dido (“… the pure musical expression of a heart breaking”) to Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (“… a ferrety, lascivious performance… breathlessly tumescent”), the title-role in Bizet’s Djamileh, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and concert works as varied as Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and George Benjamin’s Upon Silence (“Emilie Renard… émouvante”).

Performance venues have included the Theater an der Wien, the Opéra Comique and the Salle Pleyel, Paris, Lincoln Center, New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, and the Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid. Having been a member of Les Arts Florissants’ Jardin des Voix in 2013, she continues to enjoy a particularly rich association with that ensemble and its director, William Christie. She is also a regular guest at the London Handel Festival, having sung Pulcheria in Riccardo Primo and Eurilla in Il Pastor Fido under Laurence Cummings, and Arbace in the pasticcio Catone in Utica, conducted by Thomas Foster.

Recent performance highlights have included performances at the Innsbruck Festival as Ersinda in Porpora’s Il Germanico in Germania, Stradella’s oratorio San Giovanni Battista and Selene in Mercadante’s Didone abbandonata with Alessandro de Marchi and Academia Montis Regalis, the female lead in Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo (Heidelberg), the title role in Handel’s Susanna for Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company (Spitalfields Festival), Junon in Rameau’s Platée (Vienna, Paris, New York), the title role in Lully’s Armide (Sanssouci Festival Potsdam), and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte for Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques (Dijon, Limoges and Caen).

Emilie collaborates regularly with Scotland’s premier baroque ensemble Dunedin Consort, with performances of Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Lammermuir Festival), Blow’s Venus and Adonis (Krakow), Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Perth and London) and St Matthew Passion (Edinburgh and London). She is also frequently seen in concert with David Bates’ La Nuova Musica, most recently as Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Wigmore Hall).

For the season 2018/19 Emilie joined the Ensemble of Theater Magdeburg, where she sung Rossweisse in Die Walküre, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Erika in Barber’s Vanessa, and the title role in Handel’s Serse. She made her debut at Staatsoper Hamburg singing Witness 2/Singer 2/Woman 2 in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence, a production staged by Katie Mitchell and conducted by Kent Nagano.

This season Emilie returns to Theater Magdeburg where she will sing Barbara in Janáček’s Katja Kabanowa, Orest in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. She will also sing Amore in a new production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea staged by Stephen Langridge and conducted by Christophe Rousset (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées).