MUSIC + L.IFE

L.OOKING FORWARD

ContemporaryDiva, MaestraThe mysteries of Barbara Hannigan

By Rebecca Schmid

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Defiant. BarbaraHannigan as the titlerole in Berg's Lulu(2012, La Monnaie;Krysztof Warlikowski,director)

THERE ARE SOPRAN OS who dazzle audienceswith their technical virtuosity and glamorouspresence. There are sopranos who go down inhistory as muses to composers of their time.And then there are sopranos such as BarbaraHannigan, who fearlessly defy the boundariesof contemporary performance. The Canadiansoprano, at just over forty, has premiered nearlyeighty works, some of which she played a rolein commissioning. Composers such as GeorgeBenjamin and Gerald Barry have written operasspedfically for her. She has been balancedupside down and lifted above dancers' headsin new stage works. She has performed in ev-erything from a dominatrix costume to pointeshoes. And last season the soprano took up thebaton, first conducting Ligeti and Stravinsky inHelsinki and Paris, then devising pro grams fororchestras such as the Gothenburg Symphonyand the Orchestra della Toscana.In December she conducted achamber

ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonie, sharingthe podium with Simon Rattle in William

Waltons Parade for two narrator-conductors.Rattle, who has worked with Hannigansince 2006, admits he wouldn't have had thecourage to put on a piece that is "so British" inBerlin if it weren't for her incredible charisma."When you first meet Barbara you think, 'Oh,what a nice, serious person' You don't realizethat shes carrying around a whole menagerieof volcanoes inside her;' he says. "Everybodyhere is simply in awe of someone who cando things so perfectly and with no kind ofself-regard. She risks absolutely everything"Rattle says that although Hannigan is prob-ably a musician with much more breadth, shereminds him of Cathy Berberian - vocalist-composer, virtuosie experimental performer,wife and muse ofLuciano Berio-whopremiered works by Cage, Stravinsky,Milhaud and Maderna, not to mention aspecial version of Parade Walton penned forher. "Hannigan is now the singer you go towhen you want something extraordinary andoutlandish and contemporary" says Rattle.

L.lSTEN: L.lFE WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC • 27

MUSIC + LIFE. LOOKING FORWARD

The soprano speaks to an era of hyphenateartistry. It is no longer unusual for a singeror performer, male or female, to compose,direct, or choreograph - even the previousgeneration had Meredith Monk and IoanLa Barbara. Yetwhile such divos as DietrichFischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier and PlacidoDomingo have picked up the baton, femaleopera singers of international standing havebeen conspicuously absent from the podium.One exception, the contralto NathalieStutzmann, fulfilled a dream by foundingher own chamber orchestra in 2009. InHannigan's case, it was the artistic director ofthe Presences Festival in Paris who urged herto take up the vocation upon noticing that,save for gesturing with her arms, she used herbody like a conductor.Curled up on a daybed in her dressing

room after rehearsal at Berlin's Philharmoniein December, the soprano explained thatconducting is in many ways an extension ofher work as a singer. She has always studiedthe entire orchestral score when preparing apiece, determining which instrument she willwant to join or lead with her own sound. "Ithink there was a need inside to see if thiswas possible," she says. "But I didn't suddenlyhave to learn to use my body. I needed toexpand and refine how I used it" She alsonotes that with so many more women on thepodium now-from Emmanuelle Halm toSusanna Mälkki - today's younger listenersdon't consider a female conductor as unusualas her generation once did. "What is interest-ing about any conductor is their ability toincorporate both the male and the female intheir gesture. I think I just happen to have thisbody, but that doesn't really matter. We gobeyond that when we're making music"Hannigan took a similar plunge in working

with choreographer Sasha Waltz in 2010on the Pascal Dusapin opera Passion; thesoprano received morning lessons in Kleintechnique, which works muscles deeplyandincreases awareness of anatomy, then focusedon improvisation and choreography intothe evening. Hannigan and Waltz continuedtheir collaboration with Toshio Hosokawa's

28 • SPRING 2013

'Do I really want to be singing something whereeveryone is waitingfor high Fs?Or do Iwant to

forge my own path?'

Matsukaze, which premiered in Brussels twoseasons ago and will make its American debutat the Spoleto Festival this summer. Whenthe "choreographed opera" about two sisters'wandering souls played Berlin, Hannigan'sfluid grace as she wrapped her voice aroundunpredictable melodie leaps was, for thisviewer, the most impressive aspect of theproduction. The singer credits Waltz for free-ing her body and allowing her to overcome thepreconception that one has to have aperfect,tiny figure to dance (the choreographer, inturn, says Hannigan moves like a dancerdespite her lack of formal training). For Waltz,who stages some of her own works, the vocalarts and choreography can form a single line."I find the boundaries between the differentgenres difficult," she says. "One hears the voicedifferently through its interaction with dancein a certain space. It is, of course, important tohave a specialty and to have studied somethingthoroughly, but the new relationship can makesomething even more fruitful"

Hannigans dancer persona found anotheroutlet in her debut as Lulu at the Theätre dela Monnaie in Brussels last fall, when stagedirector KrzysztofWarlikowski asked her towear pointe shoes as she sang Bergs breakneckvocallines. "It was a question of mind overmatter:' she says. "Yes, it was painful and no,I haven't trained to do it, but I just thought,"Ihis is Lulu and this is her dream and shewants to be able to do this and thereforeI'm doing it," Hannigan's connection to thecharacter was so strong that she found herselfgrieving after the performance ended. "WhenI realized I couldn't be her again, it was like I'dlost my friend. Even more, like my lover hadleft me" George Benjamin, who created thefemale protagonist in his recently unveiledopera, Written on Skin [see '1\ Few Days inProvence," Val. 4, No. 4), for Hannigan, saysshe submerged herself in the role - Agnes, alandowners repressed wife - to an almostfrightening degree: "I found the depth ofherengagement extraordinary. And the role is

At the podium.Hannlgan made herconducting debut withStravinsky's Renard (TheFox) at Chätelet, Paris.

demanding, technically and emotionally"Hannigan could have carved out a

career singing the glamorous bel cantoroles to whieh coloratura sopranos of herilk usually aspire. But she discovered apassion for contemporary musie early inher studies in Toronto, premiering herfirst work at seventeen. After her firstprofessional gig singing Die Zauberfläte'sQueen of the Night, she realized, "Do Ireally want to be singing something whereeveryone is waiting for high Fs? Or do Iwant to forge my own path?" Ultimately,her curiosity led her down the latter. "Itsa funny diehotomy, but doing the modernrepertoire somehow made me feel safe. Itrust myself with this music," She empha-sizes, however, that she is very pieky aboutwhich composers she champions. Whileshe is drawn to some established figures,she is also committed to performing themusie of unknowns such as PhilippeSchoeller. Hannigan will premiere anorchestral work of his with the OrchestrePhilharmonique de Radio France in [une."I can't really say why I champion onecomposer over another," she muses. "It'slike loving. You just know." Next season,she and the Berlin Philharmonie willunveil Hans Abrahamsens orchestralsetting of texts from the Paul Griffithsnovel Let Me Tell You - arearrangementof Shakespeare's words for Ophelia into afirst-person narrative-whose commis-sion Hannigan initiated.The soprano has certainly kept the Berlin

Philharmonie on its toes. When she per-formed Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre withthe orchestra for the first time, she surprisedRattIe by showing up in seven-inch-heelboots, black wig and leather overcoat withbodice underneath - her signature costumefor the piece, also when conducting. "rthought it was my very Berlin hairdressercoming in;' he recalls with astonishment,adding that it was fortunate the players hada chance to see her before the performanceso that they're weren't too shocked. It isindeed not easy to reconcile Hannigan's

wholesome, blonde and blue-eyed offstagepresence with the sultry hysteria of herperformance. She jokes that the Mysteries, asuite of three arias Ligeti devised out of theopera Le grand macabre and she and RattIewill perform stateside with the PhiladelphiaOrchestra in May, has become what theMessiah is to most singers' careers. She hassung the suite more than fifty times, indud-ing in the late composer's presence. Afterhe heard Hannigan sing the work for thefirst time in rehearsal, Ligeti, who had noqualms about expressing dissatisfaction witha performance, walked to the front of stagewith his arms outstretched. "You learned mypiece," he said. "Thank you"Hannigan explains matter-of-factly that

she went inside the piece and did what heasked. "As far as I'm concerned, bis scoressay exactly what he wanted," she says. "Butyou really must take a risk, because he tooka risk writing it" This dramatic fearlessnesshas allowed the soprano to build bridgesto the often doistered world of the avant-garde - not unlike Cathy Berberian, whostrove to break down walls between primadonna and audience, whether presentingthe raw, everyday sounds developed inher theory of the New Vocality or singingbaroque arrangements ofBeatles songs. Ina pro gram Hannigan devised last year assinger-conductor with the Orchestra dellaToscana, an ensemble founded by Berio, shepaired Ligeti with Mozart and Rossini onthe theme of madness. "All these composersevoke a kind of whirlwind, brilliant, virtuosoexcitement" she says. 'Tve absolutely got myfinger on the pulse on with whom I'm work-ing and what I'm singing. I must be the oneto pick and choose and decide how it's goingto go. And it's always been like thaf' _

MUSIC + LIFE

POETRY

Museie MemoryI half-remember an item Ionce read

(my mind's a drippy colander, I'm afraid)

about Yehudi Menuhin, who said,

at least I think, that often when he played

a passage he found particularly tough -

so fierce, in fact, he'd stumble in the middle -

that's when he hadn't got it deep enough

into his body. So, he'd re-ohln his fiddle,

start again, but greener this time, at ease,

like leggy daffodils in spackllng rain,

gyrating widely, swaying in his knees,

while mindlessly removing any strain

from wrists and elbows, spinal column, nape.

By letting go his false holds, he became

thrum's conduit, the music's mortal shape,

until the two were, for a time, the same.

Which proves that tissues know more than

we know,

the way a run of triplets will outpace

our thinking yet still answer to the bow.

Just so: the melody can hide a place -

Ludlow and Stanton streets, the tympanie din

of a tequila bar. That's in the rnuslc, too,

a Bach partita for solo violin

I heard later, on that first night out with you.

Hearing lt now, us both, after so long,

we appeal to our ears' odd ability

to recal! the buzz embedded in that song,

unplayed for years but with us bodily.

- David Yezzi

LISTEN: LIFE WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC • 29