Emilie Renard

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 include 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. Moreover, she sung 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). Subsequently, 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.

Since 2018, Emilie has been part of the Ensemble of Theater Magdeburg. There she sung Rossweisse in Die Walküre, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Erika in Barber’s Vanessa, the title role in Handel’s Serse, Barbara in Janáček’s Katja Kabanowa, Orest in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and Mirabella in Strauss‘ Der Zigeunerbaron. Most recent engagements in Magdeburg include the German premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice in Wonderland, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, as well as Verdi’s Falstaff and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos.

Engagements outside of Magdeburg lead her to Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik in the role of Abra in Juditha triumphans under Alessandro De Marchi as well as to Philharmonie de Paris for a concert performance of Georgen Benjamin’s opera Lessons in Love and Violence, and most recently to the Mozart Festival in Würzburg for the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte alongside Les Talens Lyrique under Christophe Rousset.

In the upcoming season of 24/25, Magdeburg Theater holds various premieres as well as revivals in place for the mezzo-soprano. Starting with the title-role of The Cunning little Vixen and the role of Mercedes in a new production of Carmen. Furthermore, she will sing Romeo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi, and star in the chamber opera Penelope by Sarah Kirkland Snider in a new production by Florian Honigmann.

(2024/25_Please use this biography exclusively.)