Barbara Hannigan

Barbara Hannigan CM (born 8 May 1971)[1] is a Canadian soprano and conductor, known for her performances of contemporary opera.[2]

Barbara Hannigan
Hannigan performing in Milan in 2008
Born8 May 1971 (1971-05-08) (age 49)
Waverley, Nova Scotia, Canada
Occupation
Years active1988–present
Websitebarbarahannigan.com

Education

Hannigan's initial musical education came from music teachers in her hometown of Waverley, Nova Scotia in Halifax.[2]

After growing up in Waverley, Hannigan moved to Toronto at the age of 17.[3] She studied music at the University of Toronto, where her teachers included Mary Morrison. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1993 and a Master of Music degree in 1998.[4] She continued her studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, and the Centre d'arts Orford. She also studied for one year at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Career

Hannigan is known for her performances of contemporary music. Her advocacy of contemporary music began in her youth, and she sang her first world premiere at the age of 17. As of 2011, she has premiered approximately 75 contemporary compositions.[5] These include One by Michel van der Aa (2002), the song cycle Auf der Suche nach meinem Gesicht by Friedrich Cerha (2007), and La plus forte by Gerald Barry (2007), which the composer wrote specifically for her.[6] Hans Abrahamsen wrote the symphonic song cycle let me tell you for Hannigan.[7]

Hannigan is particularly noted for her performances of György Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre (a concert version of a scene from his opera Le Grand Macabre); in 2011 she began to conduct the work in addition to singing the vocal part.[5] Her work in contemporary opera has included singing in the premieres of Louis Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer,[8] Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant[9] and The Importance of Being Earnest,[10] Jan van de Putte's Wet Snow, Kris Defoort's House of the Sleeping Beauties, and George Benjamin's Written on Skin.[11] She has worked with choreographer Sasha Waltz on productions of Toshio Hosokawa's Matsukaze and Pascal Dusapin's Passion.[12] Hannigan received critical acclaim for her performance in Alban Berg's Lulu, which included dancing on pointe.[13] In 2014, Hannigan sang the role of Marie in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten at the Bavarian State Opera,[14] a production that was streamed live on the internet. For her performance as Marie, she won the 2015 Der Faust (award) in Germany.[15]

Hannigan regularly performs in concert as both soprano and conductor.[16] She has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic,[17] Münchner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony,[18] Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France,[19] Göteborgs Symphoniker, Prague Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra,[20] Avanti! Chamber Orchestra,[21] Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Britten Sinfonia, Gulbenkian Orchestra,[22] and The Cleveland Orchestra. She won the Ovatie 2014 award for her performance as soprano/conductor with her conducting debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Ludwig Orchestra.[23]

In 2016, Hannigan was made a Member of the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest civilian honours.[24] She was a recipient of the Rolf Schock Prize 2018 in the Musical Arts. The jury commented: "Hannigan is an extraordinary and innovative performer with a dynamic and intensive approach to the music she performs, often pure virtuoso stage interpretations, in which she often simultaneously assumes both the role of soloist and conductor. Her repertoire covers an impressive field, with great interest in new music. For a number of years she has also run a unique mentoring project, Equilibrium Young Artists, which focuses on young and newly professional musicians around the world."[25]

Other awards include Personalité Musicale de l'Année (Musical Personality of the Year) (Syndicat de la Presse Française, 2012),[26] Singer of the Year (Opernwelt, 2013), and Ehrenpreise, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2018.[27]

Selected discography

Hannigan's commercial recordings in contemporary music include the premiere recording of Henri Dutilleux's Correspondances (Deutsche Grammophon) and Louis Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer (Nonesuch), music of Luca Francesconi (Kairos)[28] and of Harry Freedman (Centrediscs). She is also featured on four Naxos recordings of vocal works of George Frideric Handel, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Gideon, Rinaldo, and Tobit.

In 2014 two DVDs were released: Alban Berg's Lulu (Bel Air Classiques) and George Benjamin's Written on Skin.[40] Written on Skin received the Gramophone Award 2014 in the category "Contemporary".

Hannigan is featured on the London Symphony Orchestra DVD Stravinsky, released in 2017 on the LSO Live label, Simon Rattle conducting, performing Alban Berg's Three Fragments from Wozzeck and Gyorgy Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre.[41]

Hannigan's life as an artist has been the subject of two documentaries: Accentus Music's documentary I'm a creative animal, produced at Lucerne Festival 2014 where she was Artiste Etoile,[42] Dutch television's Canadees Podiumdier (NTR 2014),[43] as well as Mathieu Amalric's short film, C'est presque au bout du monde.[44]

Personal

Hannigan was previously married to Dutch theatre director Gijs de Lange.[45][46] Since 2017, she has lived in Paris, France.[47] Since 2015, she has been in a long-term relationship with French actor Mathieu Amalric.[48]

gollark: I basically want a browser, calling and texts, so meh.
gollark: My current phone is dying and the battery is not replaceable, so I will probably try and obtain a pinephone if they ship to the UK.
gollark: Yep! It'll be great!
gollark: Their CPUs are *brilliant*.
gollark: To be fair, Apple's ARM core designers do great work.

References
  1. "Sagen Sie jetzt nichts, Barbara Hannigan", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8 March 2018 (in German)
  2. Ivan Hewett (2011-09-25). "Barbara Hannigan: 'You must go all the way'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  3. Roberts, Maria (15 September 2011). "The Spellbinding Ms Hannigan". International Arts Manager. 7 (17): 17, 19. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  4. Cynthia Macdonald (Summer 2004). "Barbara Hannigan". UofT Magazine. University of Toronto. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  5. Shirley Apthorp (2011-09-23). "In the premiere league". Financial Times. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  6. Barbara Hannigan (Winter 2007). "Gerald Barry: the performer's perspective" (PDF). Oxford Music Now. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
  7. Rebecca Schmid (December 2013). "Soprano of our time: Barbara Hannigan". Gramophone.
  8. Trochimczyk, Maja, "Writing to Vermeer: A View of a 'Filmic' Opera" (Chapter 12), from The Music of Louis Andriessen (Maja Trochimczyk, editor). Routledge (Taylor & Francis, New York City), p. 259 (ISBN 0-8153-3789-2).
  9. Tom Service (2005-09-16). "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Coliseum, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  10. Andrew Clements (2012-04-27). "The Importance of Being Earnest – review (Barbican, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
  11. Andrew Clements (2012-07-08). "Written on Skin – review (Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence)". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  12. Barbara Hannigan. "Creative Moves" (PDF). Opera Canada.
  13. Loomis, George (2012-10-23). "One 'Lulu' Has Little New to Say, While Another Can Do No Wrong". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  14. Die Soldaten Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine, performance details, Bavarian State Opera
  15. "Der Faust 2015". Deutscher Bühnenverein (in German).
  16. James R. Oestreich (2014-08-19). "Barbara Hannigan Sings and Conducts at the Lucerne Festival". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  17. "Andris Nelsons and Barbara Hannigan". digital Concert Hall. 2013-12-21.
  18. Trish Crawford (2015-10-05). "Barbara Hannigan to sing while conducting in TSO gig". The Star.
  19. "Barbara Hannigan à la tête de l'Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France". France Musique (in French). 2017-10-26.
  20. Sarah Batschelet (2014-08-18). "Barbara Hannigan: What the Hell is Going On? – review (Lucerne Festival)". bachtrack.com. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  21. Robert Everett-Green (2015-02-27). "Soprano Barbara Hannigan and a career built on fearless performances". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  22. Tom Service (2013-03-14). "Hannigan: 'Where's the crazy stuff?'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  23. "LUDWIG wint De Ovatie 2014". Concertgebouw. 2014-07-20. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  24. "Olympians, jurists, researchers among 113 new appointments to Order of Canada". CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  25. "A mathematician, a logician, a soloist and an Italian avant-gardist are awarded the Rolf Schock Prizes 2018". The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 2018-03-15.
  26. "Barbara Hannigan survole les prix de la critique". Diapason Mag. 2013-06-24.
  27. "Ehrenpreise 2018: Barbara Hannigan". Schallplattenkritik (in German).
  28. Steve Smith (2008-06-29). "Classical Recordings: Of Minimalism, Avant-Garde and Beethoven's Sonatas". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
  29. Kim Butterweck (2015-11-24). "Abrahamsen wins music award for let me tell you". Grawemeyer Awards.
  30. "Preis für Barbara Hannigan und Das BR-Symphonieorchester". BR Klassik (in German). 2015-11-24.
  31. "Palmarès des Diapason d'Or 2016". France Musique (in French). 2016-11-23.
  32. "Winnaars Edison Klassiek 2016 Bekend". Edisons (in Dutch). 2016-11-27.
  33. Kate Molleson (2016-05-05). "Barbara Hannigan/Satie: Socrate CD review – artful, intimate confessionals". The Guardian.
  34. "Crazy Girl Crazy". Outthere Music.
  35. "Winners Best Classical Vocal Performance – GRAMMY". GRAMMY awards. 2018-01-28.
  36. "Junos 2018: the complete list of winners". CBC News, March 25, 2018
  37. "Winner 2018 Juno Award: Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral". JUNO Awards. 2018-03-25.
  38. "Beste internationale cd – klassiek: Crazy Girl Crazy". Klara. 2018-03-15.
  39. Anthony Tommasini; James R. Oestreich; David Allen; Seth Colter Walls; Joshua Barone (2016-08-23). "The 25 Best Classical Music Recordings of 2017". The New York Times.
  40. Wendalyn Bartley (2015-01-30). "Barbara Hannigan – Being the Music". The Whole Note. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  41. Ivan Hewett (2015-01-16). "Simon Rattle with Barbara Hannigan and London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican, review: 'in his element'". The Telegraph.
  42. "Barbara Hannigan: Concert and Documentary". Opera News. November 2015.
  43. "Canadees Podiumdier". NTR Podium (in Dutch). 2014-03-30.
  44. "C'est presque au bout du monde". Opéra de Paris 3e Scene.
  45. Christine Lemke-Matwey (2016-05-26). "Sie kann, was sie will". Zeit Online (in German). Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  46. Ben Lawrence (2017-09-17). "Barbara Hannigan interview: 'I serve the music, not the audience'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  47. Shirley Apthorp (31 May 2019). "Soprano Barbara Hannigan: 'I like the alchemy of the rehearsal room'". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  48. Barone, Joshua (Oct 10, 2019). "The Unsingable Music That Stumped a Diva". Retrieved May 20, 2020 – via NYTimes.com.
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