“Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson, both striking in voice, diction and acting...”
THE TIMES
“I can't rave enough about our eponymous twins: Joanna Harries and Rosalind Dobson…were divine. An electric yet very down-to-earth chemistry with distinct voices and characters that didn't overlap. A brilliant childlike physicality and curiosity…we fell in love with them. Harries brought a boyish charm to Hansel with a brilliantly warm-bodied voice…”
OPERA NOW
“The two children are the evening's beating heart, and they are marvellous. Joanna Harries' Hansel and Rosalind Dobson's Gretel...are fresh and agile and exquisitely matched, and they inhabit childhood without ever once condescending to it…Voices in full bloom carrying the weight of the piece as though it were nothing. These are singers to follow.”
OPERA SCENE
“Harries and Dobson shine as the title pair...As Hansel, Joanna Harries revealed a persuasive mezzo-soprano...”
MUSIC OMH
“[Harries and Dobson] were glorious singers, with just the right childish intonation, and their acting, filled with cunning detail, was dazzling, sharp-witted...and enthralling”
CLASSICAL MUSIC DAILY
“...there are some glorious sounds on stage too, where Hansel (Joanna Harries) and Gretel (Rosalind Dobson) are a pair of sooty, fractious brats in a monochrome dreamscape”
THE SPECTATOR
“Central to the success of this production is the casting, and claiming our attention throughout are Joanna Harries as Hansel and Rosalind Dobson as Gretel. So credible is their portrayal, with physical gestures agile and gawky by turns, that this well-matched pair…have clearly not forgotten how to be children….Dobson’s clear voiced Gretel…complimenting Harries’ warm mezzo…”
OPERA TODAY
“Joanna Harries’ Hansel is boyish and bumptious...blending with Dobson in the poignant Evening Prayer.”
THE STAGE
JANÁČEK Katya Kabanova (Varvara)
New Palace Opera - 2026
“I much admired Joanna Harries as Varvara, impish and frivolous, with a delightful voice, particularly in her folk song...”
Seen & Heard International
Letters from Scandinavia
Debut album with Sholto Kynoch (piano)
CRD Records - 2025
“Vivid storytelling... It is meticulously researched and brilliantly executed...”
BBC RADIO 3 Record Review
“This is an unusual and enchanting thing – not just an album but an embracing narrative experience…”
GRAMOPHONE
"…Harries knows how to project with an intimate expressiveness, while Kynoch emphasizes the richness of harmonic colour.”
SONOGRAMA
HANDEL Orlando (Medoro)
Buxton International Festival - 2023
“Olivia Doutney and Joanna Harries make an ideal pair of lovers as Angelica and Medoro respectively, each producing measured tone combined with clear and emphatic dramatic performances...”
THE STAGE
“Joanna Harries brought vocal warmth and flexibility to the role of Medoro...”
CLASSICAL MUSIC DAILY
“Joanna Harries was an elegant Medoro...”
BACHTRACK
STRADELLA La Forza dell'Amor Paterno (Lucinda)
The Barber Opera - 2023
“Joanna Harries’ warm mezzo captured perfectly the love-deprived miseries of Lucinda…”
Anthony Ogus - OPERA NOW columnist
“One of the best productions of a Baroque opera I have seen for some time…Francis Gush sings with a pure-toned and straightforward guilelessness as Arbante, alongside Joanna Harries’s similarly unaffected Lucinda”
CLASSICAL SOURCE
“This production of Alessandro Stradella’s La Forza dell’Amor Paterno could not have ticked more boxes … Joanna Harries brought much personality as Lucinda”
OPERA MAGAZINE
English National Opera NOS showcase
Cadogan Hall - 2022
“A sparkling celebration of youthful talent...As for the stylish mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries, she graced two different versions of Perrault’s most popular fairy tale in conquering both the title role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola and the Prince in Massenet’s Cendrillon.”
OPERA MAGAZINE
SCOTT STROMAN The Weekend (Diana)
Highbury Opera Theatre - 2021
"Joanna Harries is the standout amongst the support cast, her mezzo-soprano lending pathos to the daughter whose life is falling apart yet nobody is willing to speak to her.”
BROADWAY WORLD
HOLST Sāvitri (Sāvitri)
Hampstead Garden Opera - 2020
"Joanna Harries' Savitri is the only flesh-and-blood character...Harries sang with conviction and emotional force..."
THE TIMES
"Throughout the performance, Harries’s robust mezzo-soprano adroitly navigated the shifting moods and keys of the piece, letting rip in her final exchange with Death. “Give me life, life is all I ask of thee,” she implores, redolent of Salome in her final moments”
BACHTRACK
"The young singers...bring admirable clarity to their projection of Holst’s sometimes cryptic English text and declamatory, yet lyrical vocal lines...Joanna Harries is both gentle and strong as Savitri”
THE STAGE
ULLMANN Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Drummer)
Loud Crowd & CHROMA - 2019
An outstandingly intense cast (Chiara Vinci, Joanna Harries, Peter Brathwaite)...help to evoke the manic mixture of desperation, determination and fatalistic urgency.”
THE TIMES
DAVID BLAKE & KEITH WARNER Scoring a Century (Tartine)
British Youth Opera
The level of talent displayed by the young cast – many of them taking multiple roles – holds the attention through scene after scene. Among her manifold duties, Joanna Harries displays acumen as nightclub singer Tartine.”
THE STAGE
HANDEL Agrippina (Ottone)
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Another outstanding interpretation was that of Joanna Harries as Ottone...She has a beautifully schooled mezzo and projected each of her emotionally penetrating arias with great accomplishment."
OPERA SCOTLAND
“Joanna Harries was a...thoughtful Ottone, heartbreaking in her aria when shunned by everyone at the end of the first half.”
BACHTRACK
WEILL Street Scene (Mrs Jones)
Royal Northern College of Music
"[The cast] included some remarkably mature singers and some excellent acting. I can't possibly mention everyone, but I have to pick out Joanna Harries, as Emma Jones, the warm-hearted wiseacre of the wives - her vivid Noo Joisey tones were a delight."
