Bernadette Johns is a British-French mezzo-soprano based in Strasbourg, France. She was a member of the 2023-25 opera studio at the Opéra national du Rhin and is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Roles at the Opéra national du Rhin include Flora Bervoix in La Traviata, La Mère in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (also at Opéra de Reims), Deuxième fille des pâturages in Peer Gynt and Mallika (cover) in Lakmé. She originated the role of Madame Hucklebee in a new French production of The Fantasticks and featured as a mezzo soloist in Sweeney Todd, Les Noces and in recitals Handel and his contemporaries and Dancing to Schubert in the 21st Century.

In the UK, Bernadette has covered the title role in Arminio at the Royal Ballet and Opera, covered and performed the title role in Carmen at Longborough Festival Opera, sung Dido in Dido & Aeneas at Waterperry Opera Festival and covered and performed Ludmila in The Bartered Bride at Garsington Opera. She sang Spell for Sex in Spell Book by Freya Waley-Cohen and Second Lady in La liberazione di Ruggiero by Francesca Caccini in Longborough Festival’s Young Artist production.

Bernadette was a member of Royal Academy Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, where she sang Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Tirinto in Imeneo, Concepción in L’heure espagnole, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Maman in L’enfant et les sortilèges and covered Dorabella in Così fan tutte. 

Concert performances include Brahms Alto Rhapsody at Cadogan Hall, Handel Messiah at Nevill Holt Opera, Haydn Theresienmesse at Saffron Hall and recitals at Wigmore Hall, Leeds Song Festival and Oxford International Song Festival. During her studies at the Royal Academy she was appointed Bach Scholar, appearing as soloist in concerts such as St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock, B Minor Mass with Masaaki Suzuki, BWV106 ‘Actus Tragicus’ with Philippe Herreweghe and BWV54 ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’ with Rachel Podger. 

Bernadette was a finalist in the Bicentenary Prize at Wigmore Hall in 2022. She won Second Prize (2021) and the Song Prize (2019) in the Richard Lewis Award, Second Prize in the Joan Chisell Schumann Prize, and was a Sybil Tutton Opera Award holder. She won the HRH Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester Award for Exemplary Studentship in 2021 and holds a Masters with Distinction, DipRAM for outstanding final recital and an Advanced Diploma in Opera from the Royal Academy of Music. She previously studied as a choral scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford.

Biography not to be reproduced without permission.