Crazy Girl Crazy – Barbara Hannigan

   in Opera Now (Nov, 2017)
Barbara Hannigan will please her legion of admirers with Crazy Girl Crazy, in which she arranges, sings and conducts. I’m not convinced she’ll necessarily win more fans though as her varied programme will provide a challenge to anyone lacking sufficiently broad tastes and accompanying mind. She draws a fascinating link between Berg’s Lulu and Berio’s Sequenza III and Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. Some listeners won’t make it past the opening whispers, shrieks, murmurs and pipings of the Berio, but if they do they’ll be rewarded by a lush Lulu Suite, with Hannigan singing the Lied; and then on to the Gershwin, which goes with a swing, though I find her voice …