BARBARA HANNIGAN

MICHEL VAN DER AA: One - Chamber Opera for Soprano

The label Disquiet Media has been developed to showcase the talent of the multi-award-winning contemporary Dutch composer, film maker, and director Michel van der Aa. The first two CDs (DQM01 and DQM02), released in 2010, featured some of his orchestral and chamber music. This new DVD is of “One – A Chamber Opera for Soprano and Video”, written for and given a phenomenal performance by Canadian Amsterdam-based soprano Barbara Hannigan.

Michel van der Aa’s wrote his chamber opera “One” in 2002 for the acclaimed soprano Barbara Hannigan, who takes the lead role in this recording. Accompanied only by video and an electronic soundtrack, she plays a solitary woman trapped in a cage of real and ‘captured’ time. Voices of other women are introduced and slowly she becomes entwined in a strange and mysterious ritual. It was premiered on 12 January 2003 by Barbara Hannigan in the Amsterdam Frascati Theatre. Since then the production has been in great demand abroad and has been performed to critical and audience acclaim in eleven

countries, at festivals including the Berliner Festspiele, Paris Festival de L’automne, Oslo Ultima Festival, Warsaw Autumn, and the Venice Biennale.

Michel van der Aa was born in the Netherlands in 1970, and is one of Europe’s most highly regarded contemporary composers. Van der Aa's works often include a theatrical element, where staging, film, and music are seamlessly interwoven. His style is independent in spirit and characterised by the use of rhythm and chords as structural elements.

Barbara Hannigan (soprano)

Film cast: Barbara Hannigan, Sheila Wiersum, H.L.van Eesteren, Mary Rose Arntzenius, Margaret van Berckel, Frankie van Weli

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Duration: 46mins

Picture Format: PAL, 16:9 anamorphic widescreen

Sound Format: Dolby Digital stereo and DTS surround audio

Subtitles: None

Disquiet Media DVD DQM03