(Curator: Phil Kline)

“Mysteries of the Macabre” – Gyorgi Ligeti – sung and conducted by Barbara Hannigan

My ears perked up when this person I’d never heard of, Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, did a sparkling turn in the song “Das Himmlische Leben” which concludes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. I soon learned that she sang a lot of contemporary music, is perhaps the only singer out there who has starred in both The Mikado and Lulu, and that she also conducts. But I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for this.