Rachel Yakar

Born: March 3, 1938 - Lyon, France

The Franch soprano, Rachel Yakar, studied at the Paris Conservatoire (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris), where she won three First Prizes, two of which were accorded with a unanimous vote, including first prize for comic opera. Afterwards she worked with Germaine Lubin.

Since 1964, Rachel Yakar was engaged by Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf-Duisburg). Her lyric soprano voice enabled her to approach little by little the oratorio and the great roles of the repertory, including: Rigoletto, La Boheme, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, The Bartered Bride, Le Nozze di Figaro (the Countess), The Rake's Progress, Turandot (Liu), Der Rosenkavalier (the Marschallin) and Faust.

Rachel Yakar has sung in most of the major opera houses of Germany, Holland, France and Switzerland, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, London (Covent Garden), Toronto, at the Festivals of Edinburgh, Bayreuth, Aix-en-Provence, Prague, at the Mozart Festival in Paris and in Lisbon (Gulbenkian Foundation), in a range of repertory going from early music (Cavalieri, Cavalli, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Monteverdi) to Romantic. The Baroque repertoire held an important place in her career, being it French, English, German, or Italian.

In parallel with her operatic activity, Rachel Yakar has led an important career as a concert artist, performing under such conductors as Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Alberto Erede, James Levine, Michel Corboz and Sir Charles Mackerras. She was particularly fond of recitals, in which she interpreted in duet with Claude Lavoix for many years.

At the same time Rachel Yakar devoted herself to a career of melodist and teaching at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique of up to 1997, and at the Studio for Baroque Music of Versailles, in the frame of which she co-directed many courses of interpretation in France as well as abroad. In 1998, she is invited to give master-classes at the l'Académie Royale d'été of Floreffe, in Belgium. Currently, the Royaumont foundation allots purses to young singers, so that they can benefit from her rich experience in private courses.