Barbara Hannigan Soprano

© Raphael Brand / OnP

Biography

Barbara Hannigan has a dual career as a singer and a conductor. Her vast opera repertoire ranges from the baroque to modern-day contemporary (Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, György Ligeti, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, Gerald Barry, Salvatore Sciarrino, Pascal Dusapin, and Hans Abrahamsen). She created the role of Agnès in the world premiere production of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Aix Festival in 2012. She recently performed the title role in the Krzysztof Warlikowski production of Lulu at La Monnaie in Brussels and then again in a new production of the same work by Christoph Marthaler in Hamburg. Her other roles include Marie in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper with Kirill Petrenko conducting; and Mélisande, first in Katie Mitchell's production of Pelléas et Mélisande at the 2016 Aix Festival and then in the Krzysztof Warlikowski production at the 2017 Ruhrtriennale. She also appeared in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in Los Angeles and in La Voix humaine at the Paris Opera.
In 2017, she made her Glyndebourne Festival debut in Brett Dean’s Hamlet (Ophelia). She also recorded the Grammy-winning Crazy Girl Crazy (Alpha Classics), her first album as a singer and a conductor. During the 2017-2018 season, she performed in the world premiere of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.
She also appeared in the film Music is Music under the direction of Mathieu Amalric. She has worked with the choreographer Sasha Waltz on Hosokawa’s Matsukaze and Pascal Dusapin’s Passion. Barbara Hannigan has sung under the batons of Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, David Zinman, Vladimir Jurowski, Antonio Pappano, Pierre Boulez, Alan Gilbert, and Reinbert De Leeuw. As a conductor herself, she recently led the Danish National Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Ludwig Orchestra, with which she just completed a European tour. She is also invited regularly by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2014, she was named “Star Artist” at the Lucerne Festival where the Accentus Music documentary I’m a Creative Animal was presented.

Projects:
The Rake’s Progress (conducting) at La Monnaie in Brussels. 

Biography

Debut at the Paris Opera

Immerse in the Paris Opera universe

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