Hansel & Gretel opened yesterday at Longborough Festival Opera and I could not be more proud of this lovely team and what we brought to the stage ✨ It's a joy to bring this feral little boy to life. Enjoying a day off before two more shows this weekend!

Opera is messy work...Some rehearsal photos from Hansel & Gretel with Longborough Festival Opera 🍰 Hansel - me Gretel - Rosalind Dobson Witch / Mother - Lee Bisset Father - Darren Jeffery Sandman - Laura Fleur Dew Fairy - Kelli-Ann Masterson Conductor - Karen Kamensek Director - Lucy Bailey

📝 "I much admired Joanna Harries as Varvara, impish and frivolous, with a delightful voice, particularly in her folk song..." - Seen & Heard International A nice review of our Katya Kabanova concert performance last weekend. I think "impish and frivolous" is what I shall aspire to be at all times😈

Hello Longborough Festival Opera 🎵! We had our sitzprobe yesterday with the orchestra and are now into a week of stage rehearsals for Hansel & Gretel. Also enjoying some beautiful morning runs in the Cotswold countryside.

Tonight! Singing Janáček's beautiful "Katya Kabanova" with this team ⛈️ Katya - Philippa Boyle Boris - James Schouten Tichon - Jonathan Finney Kabanicha - Lauren Easton Varvara - me Kudryash - Robin Whitehouse Dikoi - Ashley Mercer Glasha - Caroline Carragher Sun 19 July 6:30pm St John's Waterloo

Looking forward to returning to Brighton Early Music Festival this autumn with SongPath 🌳 We'll be the closing event of this year's festival on Sunday 25 October, bringing music once again to Brighton's beautiful Stanmer Park 🍄🍂🍎 🌜 www.bremf.org.uk/event/bremf-2026-bringers-of-dreams/

From Fri 17-Sun 19 July there's another chance to watch mine & Anna Tilbrook's Opera Rara recital of Italian song by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini & Uccelli as part of their summer stream. Also check out the other amazing artists! 😍🌞 www.opera-rara.com/summer-stream-concert-series-from-opera-rara

Taking a break from Hansel & Gretel this weekend to practice some Janáček ahead of our Kátya Kabanová. I've loved this music ever since I sang in the chorus with Opera Holland Park at college, then sang Varvara a few years later 🎻Sun 19 July St John's Waterloo www.newpalaceopera.com/katya-kabanova

We had stunning weather last weekend for SongPath at the beautiful Durham University Botanic Gardens with Jess Dandy & clarinetist Jessica Lee 🌳 Singing under the trees, poetry in the glasshouse, a cuckoo chorus in the woodland, handbell choir by the foxgloves & a new work by composer James Weeks🌿🎵

In between opera rehearsals it was lovely to lead another "Sounding Bodies" workshop last weekend at Barts Hospital with cellist Sophie Gledhill. We explored music & the body in the stunning Great Hall as part of Creative Health & Heritage Day (with London Museum) for patients & their families 🎵

First day of music calls for Hansel & Gretel with Longborough Festival Opera today! 🍭Hansel-me 🍬Gretel-Rosalind Dobson 🧹Witch-Lee Bisset 🍺Father-Darren Jeffery 🧚‍♂️Dew Fairy-Kelli Ann Masterson 🧝‍♂️Sandman-Laura Fleur Conductor-Karen Kamensek Director-Lucy Bailey www.lfo.org.uk/opera/hansel-and-gretel

SongPath comes to Durham Botanic Garden this weekend, so here's one of my favourite Northumbrian folksongs🎵 music • nature • wellbeing 🌳Sunday 21 June 🌷1:30-3:30pm 🌱Durham Botanic Garden 🪻FREE with entry to gardens (£5/£4/free) Book your free place www.songpath.co.uk @durhammusicdept.bsky.social

Very much looking forward to bringing this cracking programme to Bridgewater Hall with Aleksandra Myslek in the autumn as part of Manchester Midday Concerts series! 🧚‍♂️ Always love returning to Manchester, where I studied at RNCM. 🎟️ www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk/whats-on/manchester-middays-221026/

The stunning Layer Marney Tower in Essex was the last stop for me for a little while on the Wild Arts Opera Evenings tour. I'm now off to Hansel & Gretel Longborough Festival Opera, but will be back with this lovely team for a few more performances at the end of the summer 🧹 🎵

Durham looking beautiful in the sunshine at our SongPath workshop at Durham University on Monday. Can't wait to bring SongPath to Durham Botanic Gardens on Sun 21 June for an uplifting blend of music & nature www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/music/about-us/events/songpath-in-the-botanic-garden

Such a fantastic event on Tues with Hospital Rooms at Goodmayes Hospital seeing all the new artworks completed on the mental health wing. Last year we created a new song cycle with an amazing group of patients and staff here as part of this project, with composer Alex Groves & pianist Jong Sun Woo

The beautiful Thorington Theatre in Suffolk where we performed with Wild Arts on Sunday. What a stunning venue in the middle of the woods!

A few of the beautiful locations for @wildartspresents Opera Evening this past week with this lovely bunch 🌳🎻

Are you in the North East? Join SongPath at Durham Botanic Gardens on 21st June for a unique afternoon of music-making and wellbeing in nature! 🌳 Sunday 21 June 🪻 1:30pm-3:30pm 🌷 Durham University Botanic Garden 🌱 Free with entry to Gardens. Book your place here: pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham...

Janáček is one of my favourite composers, because of how much magic he packs into a few short bars-and I've been so enjoying revisiting the role of Varvara for a concert performance of Kátya Kabanová with @newpalaceopera 📅Sun 19 July 🕡6:30pm 📍St John's Waterloo www.newpalaceopera.com/katya-kabanova

A few weeks ago I returned to Trinity College, Cambridge where I sang in the choir as an undergrad, for a recital in the Master's Lodge with Sholto Kynoch 🎹 I remember watching some of the Master's Lodge concerts as an undergrad - so it was pretty surreal and special to be in one!

My favourite gigs are in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 And a treat to sing with the lovely human that is @siandicker last night 🎵

Memories from new opera "Rosalind" about Rosalind Franklin and the discovery of DNA last month with London Mozart Players & Helix Music at King's College London where she took the famous Photograph 51 🧬 Such a lovely cast & team to work with and a stunning Double Helix-inspired set! 📸 Bill Knight

When you're colour co-ordinated with your prop broom 🧹 Instead of a stepsister or Prince Charming, this time I get a chance to play Cinderella in @wildartspresents Opera Evenings this summer. On the musical menu: a smörgåsbord of Rossini, Massenet, Gluck, Bernstein, Noel Coward & more

Lady Bragg over and out - what a lovely team to have created the premiere of new opera "Rosalind" with 🧬

Trying to look fabulous on your dinner break but it's giving Dinner Ladies 💁‍♀️

Dress rehearsal today for "Rosalind" 🧬 Here's part of the double-helix inspired set, very near the labs where Franklin took the famous Photograph 51. Fantastic to put it together with the London Mozart Players and hear the full score - and such a lovely team to work with over the last few weeks.

...and CONCERT: 🎹 6 May Letters from Scandinavia Trinity College, Cambridge with Sholto Kynoch (piano) 🎻 16 May VIVALDI Gloria Mountain Ash Choral Society 🎭 21, 22, 24 May, 4 Jun, 29 Aug, 5 Sep Wild Arts Opera Evenings 🌳 21 Jun SongPath at Durham Botanic Gardens www.joannaharries.com/diary-2026

Some spring/summer things: OPERA 🧬 21 & 22 Apr WHITE Rosalind (Alice Bragg) London Mozart Players & Helix Music 🎵 19 Jul JANÁČEK Katya Kabanova (Varvara) New Palace Opera 🍬 30 Jul, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 Aug HUMPERDINCK Hänsel & Gretel (Hänsel) Longborough Festival Opera www.joannaharries.com/diary-2026

It was a joy to be a part of "First Thought, Best Thought" at @poetry.plays festival last night: an entirely improvised evening with 3 dancers, painter, pianist, guitarist, spoken word artist and me responding to lines of poetry on the spot. Playful, moving, funny & beautiful in turn 🥰