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Composer: Abrahamsen, Hans

Composer: Puccini, Giacomo

Composer: Verdi, Giuseppe

Composer: Satie, Erik

Composer: Mahler, Gustav

Composer: Grisey, Gerard

Composer: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich

Composer: Mascagni, Pietro

Composer: Strauss, Richard

Composer: Debussy, Claude

Holy Fire - When Female Voice Pierces the Heart

Hannigan, Barbara

Piemontesi, Francesco

Jaho, Ermonela

Grigorian, Asmik

Conductor: Leeuw, Reinbert de

Conductor: Welser-Most, Franz

Conductor: Petrenko, Kirill

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Bavarian State Orchestra

Television Director: Schmidt-Garre, Jan

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Piano: Piemontesi, Francesco

Soprano: Grigorian, Asmik

Soprano: Hannigan, Barbara

Soprano: Jaho, Ermonela

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Year of Production: 2021

Playing Time: 01:32:29

Catalogue Number: NRE01601

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Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho, Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian. Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.

Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.