Ruth Leon recommends… Taking Risks – Barbara Hannigan
Ruth Leon recommendsTaking Risks – Barbara Hannigan
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If you are interested in process, as I am, in the way in which a performance is formed from its earliest idea through to its final staging, this is a documentary for you. In it, the great soprano Barbara Hannigan, nearing the end of her singing career, has turned to conducting and direction.
She chooses, not a small orchestral piece on which she can practice her newfound skills, but a huge grand opera, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, with a full orchestra and full cast of 6 soloists and chorus. The opera drew its inspiration from a series of paintings and engravings by William Hogarth and has become a standard work in the repertory of most major opera companies since its startling premiere in 1951 in Venice.
The choice, while on the surface foolhardy, is understandable when you know that Hannigan is intimately familiar with it, having been singing its leading role, that of Anne Truelove, over her entire career, starting when she was 19.
The documentary “Taking Risks” follows all aspects of the production of The Rake’s Progress, starting with the very first auditions, the casting and rehearsal process, and culminating in the premiere in Gothenburg in December 2018. Hannigan hand-picked the cast of soloists from over 350 applications from 39 countries, holding auditions throughout Europe. and, rather than choosing experienced opera singers who had sung the roles before, she opted for young performers at the start of their careers. She put them through a mentoring initiative “Equilibrium”, designed to pass on what she has learned in her career to the next generation.
Documentary director Maria Stodtmeier captures all this in a fascinating film about how this particular production found its way, through one very single-minded protagonist, herself famous enough to make it work her way, to the stage. The stage director is Linus Fellbom and the soloists are William Morgan, Aphrodite Patoulidou, John Taylor Ward, Kate Howden, Ziad Nehme and Erik Rosenius. Barbara Hannigan conducts the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Vocal Ensemble.
She’s a prodigious talent!
It is indeed a fine film, also available on my SVOD Portal: http://www.theartschannel.online where you can find a wide variety of high quality films and series from around Europe and beyond that you wont find elsewhere. And all for £60 a year (£30 for under 30s)