Acting

Rachel Yakar

Rachel Yakar (3 March 1936 – 24 June 2023) was a French operatic soprano and academic voice teacher. She was known for Mozart roles such as Elvira in Don Giovanni, Baroque opera and contemporary opera. She was a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from 1964 to 1991, and appeared also in Paris, at the Royal Opera House in London and at festivals including Bayreuth and Glyndebourne. She received international attention as Poppea in the 1977 production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Oper Zürich conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, which was recorded and filmed. She made many more recordings reviving Baroque operas in historically informed performance. Her portrayal of Debussy's Mélisande was described as ideal. She was admired not only for her voice and diction but also for her stage presence. After her retirement from the stage she taught at the Paris Conservatoire. Ivan A. Alexandre from Diapason summarised her performing: "A darling of the Baroque pioneers and a Mozartian at heart and in style, the soprano from Lyon was also the intimate voice of Strauss, Debussy and Messiaen." Yakar was born in Lyon on 3 March 1936 to a family of Greek-Turkish origin. She first trained to be a fashion designer. She then studied voice at the Paris Conservatoire, and further for four years with Germaine Lubin. In 1963, she made her debut at the Strasbourg opera. She moved to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 1964, where she remained a member of the ensemble for more than 25 years. She appeared there in more than 40 productions, including leading roles such as the female title role in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Mozart's Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Verdi's Gilda in Rigoletto and Desdemona in Otello, Tchaikovsky's Tatjana in Eugene Onegin, and Puccini's Mimi in La Bohème and Liù in Turandot. She also appeared there in the title roles of Dvořák's Rusalka, Arabella by Richard Strauss, and Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and as Antonia in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust and Anne in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. She was a favourite with the audience due to her stage presence.