FULL I’m a creative animal – Barbara Hannigan TV-Documentary Switzerland 2021
Popular Singers in this Opera Recording
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: I'm a creative animal - Barbara Hannigan
- Composer: N/A
- Libretto: N/A
- Venue & Opera Company: Luzern, Switzerland
- Recorded: 2021
- Type: Other
- Singers: Barbara Hannigan
- Conductor:
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Barbara Seiler
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: SRF
- Date Published: 2021
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: SRF FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
She has a powerful voice, is wild, fearless and extremely versatile. The audience celebrates them with standing ovations, the critics try to describe their captivating effect in a fascinated way. But actually only one thing helps: Barbara Hannigan has to be experienced, preferably in the front row. For a cinematic portrait, the Canadian soprano and conductor allowed the SRF cameras to get very close to her.
The audience in the KKL’s venerable temple of sound must have briefly felt like they were in the wrong film. After the graceful blonde Barbara Hannigan has sung Mozart with her radiant soprano and conducted Rossini and Fauré, she staggers back onto the stage as a black-haired dominatrix, in a latex mini, high boots and fishnet stockings and puts on an almost disturbing performance. Her interpretation of György Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre” pulls the audience from their seats and tempts old master Sir Simon Rattle to take a symbolic bow in front of the stage.
It is the culmination of a concert that Hannigan led as both singer and conductor. The SRF camera is literally up close and personal as the artist transforms from glamorous opera diva to crazy dominatrix in latex costume. At the same time, Barbara Hannigan appears highly concentrated and driven by an almost animal energy.
«In the creative process, I rarely feel like a female human being, but more like an animal. I am a bird, a horse or a wolf – I can change animal species in a minute. It feels very natural to me.” Canada’s Nova Scotia is their – now sorely missed – home. In August 2014 Lucerne will be her temporary home.
In her film at the Lucerne Festival, Barbara Seiler accompanies the artist during rehearsals, workshops and concerts and observes her behind the scenes of the festival, where she resides as an “artiste étoile”. The honorary title has hardly ever been more fitting. With her fearless, self-sacrificing commitment to classical modernism, the Canadian has become a coveted figurehead for composers, festivals and concert halls.
“Sometimes the press praises me beyond measure. As if I were an extraterrestrial creature that can do everything. Of course I’m happy about that. On the other hand, it makes me angry. Because what nobody sees is the work, the discipline, the precise preparation that is behind everything I do. »
There is little time for rest. There are also no days off for the “Artiste étoile” in Lucerne. On the morning after the premiere of Unsuk Chin’s “Le silence des sirenes” at the KKL, Barbara Hannigan is already jogging five kilometers along the lake. In any case, the best way to recover is at a rehearsal with her fellow musicians.