Barbara Hannigan

Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan has received much acclaim for her performances of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a tour de force for soprano and orchestra which she has sung at Lincoln Center in New York, the Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and across Europe and North America. This season she began another stage in performing this work – singing AND conducting it at the same time. She has also performed the other major vocal works of Ligeti, making her BBC Proms debut in 2003 performing Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Eötvös, with further performances at Lincoln Center in New York, and Ligeti’s Requiem with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jonathan Nott at the Salzburg Festival, and with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Peter Eotvos. Additionally, Dutilleux’s Correspondances for soprano and orchestra has become a major work in her repertoire, which she has sung with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw, Oslo Phiharmonic conducted by Jukka Pekka Saraste, the CBSO conducted by Sakari Oramo at the 2005 BBC Proms, the Helsinki Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Orchestre National de France conducted by Kurt Masur, the Toronto Symphony conducted by Peter Oundjian and at the Palais Garnier with the Paris Opera Orchestra and Oliver Knussen. Her operatic roles include Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice, Anne Truelove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, the title role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Larinda in Hasse’s Larinda e Vanesio as well as the title roles in Hasse’s La Contadina and La Fantesca, Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, Arethuze in Charpentier’s Acteon, Armida in Händel’s Rinaldo and Dalinda in Händel’s Ariodante.Hannigan sang the world premieres of Pascal Dusapin’s Passion at the 2008 Aix en Provence Festival, Louis Andriessen’s Writing to Vermeer (Saskia) with the Netherlands Opera, Jan van de Putte’s Wet Snow (Liza) with Holland’s National Reisopera, Michel van der Aa’s solo opera One for soprano, film and electronics, and Gabrielle in the world première of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant at English National Opera. Gerald Barry also composed La plus forte for her voice – a full setting for soprano and orchestra of Strindberg’s play, which had its concertante premiere in Paris 2006 and awaits a complete staging. In 2007, she made her debut at Venice’s La Fenice with the world premiere of Luca Mosca’s opera Signor Goldoni (Despina).
Hannigan has performed with major orchestras and ensembles throughout the world, in repertoire ranging from Händel, Bach, and Mozart, to Knussen, Dutilleux and Ligeti. She has worked with conductors including Reinbert de Leeuw, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Thomas Ades, Kurt Masur, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Ingo Metzmacher, Peter Oundjian, Oliver Knussen, Jonathan Nott, Peter Rundel, Michael Gielen and Peter Eötvös, has been on tour for several years with Maurizio Pollini’s Progetto Pollini, singing the works of Luigi Nono, and has had the privilege of working with composers including György Ligeti, Louis Andriessen, Gerald Barry, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Oliver Knussen and Henri Dutilleux.
Upcoming engagements include productions at La Monnaie (Ligeti’s Grand Macabre and the world premiere of Kris deFoort’s House of Sleeping Beauties) Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and the title role in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with the Berlin Philharmonic, Gerald Barry’s La plus forte with the New World Symphony in Miami, and concerts with Ensemble Intercontemporain, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Schoenberg Ensemble, and Deutsche Symphonie Orchestra, and the CBSO. Besides her activities in concert and opera, Hannigan presents also liedrecitals with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.

Photo © Marco Borggreve