PORTRET z HISTORIĄ Barbara Hendricks

„…To, że w pewnym momencie zajęłam się jazzem, jest dla mnie jak najbardziej naturalne. Gdy rozpoczynałam edukację, słuchałam jazzu i gospel, wychowywałam się na broadwayowskich musicalach, a jednocześnie w szkole wykonywaliśmy chóry z kantat Bacha. Może z tego wynika mój otwarty i bezpośredni stosunek do wszelkiej muzyki, byleby była ona wartościowa. Ze szkoły średniej wyniosłam też wpojone mi przez nauczycieli przekonanie, że w sztuce najważniejsza jest jakość, a nie podział na kategorie…” – Barbara Hendricks.

Barbara Hendricks (ur. 20 listopada 1948 w Stephens, Arkansas) – afroamerykańska śpiewaczka operowa oraz wokalistka jazzowa i negro spirituals. 

Od 1977 mieszka w Europie, od 1985 w Szwajcarii. Posiada obywatelstwo szwedzkie. 

Ukończyła studia na Uniwersytecie w Nebrasce w specjalności matematyka i chemia (dyplom 1968). Następnie studiowała w Juilliard School of Music w Nowym Jorku w klasie mezzosopranu Jennie Tourel oraz uczestniczyła w kursach mistrzowskich prowadzonych przez Marię Callas. 

Jej operowy debiut sceniczny miał miejsce w 1974 na Festiwalu w Glyndebourne oraz w Operze w San Francisco. W trakcie swojej kariery operowej występowała m.in. w Operze Paryskiej, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden i Teatrze La Scala. Jej repertuar zawiera ponad 20 partii operowych, z większość została nagrana dla takich wytwórni, jak EMI, Erato, CBS, TELARC, DGG, Decca.

„…Barbarę Herdricks spotałem i fotografowałem 1 września 1989 r. na próbach koncertu z okazji 50. rocznicy II wojny światowej jaki zorganizował w Teatrze Wielkim apel o pokój, z udziałem światowych gwiazd (m.in. Leonard Bernstein –https://www.czczaplinski.com/post/portret-z-historią-leonard-bernstein – , Samuel Pisar, Liv Ullmann-https://www.czczaplinski.com/post/portret-z-historią-krzysztof-penderecki–, Lukas Foss, Hermann Prey, Krzysztof Penderecki–https://www.czczaplinski.com/post/portret-z-historią-krzysztof-penderecki– z satelitarnym przekazem po raz pierwszy na żywo z Polski za granicę do 25 krajów…” – Czesław Czapliński. 

Barbara Hendricks wystąpiła w filmowych ekranizacjach oper Cyganeria Pucciniego, Żywot rozpustnika (The Rake’s Progress) Strawińskiego. Pojawiła się również obok Juliette Binoche w filmie Disengagement Amosa Gitaja (2007). 

Artystka śpiewa również muzykę jazzową, pojawiając się od 1994 na Festiwalu Jazzowym w Montreux oraz na innych jazzowych wydarzeniach na świecie. Jej płyta z 2008 pt. Barbara sings the blues zawierała utwory Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith i Duke’a Ellingtona z towarzyszeniem znakomitego zespołu Magnus Lindgren Quartet. 

Śpiewaczka działa w sprawie uchodźców współpracując z Komisarzem USA do spraw uchodźców oraz dając koncerty charytatywne m.in. w Sarajewie i Dubrowniku. 

Zasiadała w jury konkursu głównego na 52. MFF w Cannes (1999). 

Odznaczona została orderem Legii Honorowej w stopniu kawalera oraz Orderem Sztuki i Literatury w stopniu komandora. 

Dyskografia: Au Coeur de L'Opera – Opera Arias – Järvi (EMI Classics); Airs & duos d'opérettes – Foster (2CD)* (EMI Classics); Bach/Vivaldi – Magnificat/Gloria – Marriner (EMI Classics); Bach – Kantaten – Schreier (EMI Classics); Barbara Hendricks sings Christmas – Ericson (EMI Classics); Barber/Copland – Knoxville/Quiet City – Tilson-Thomas (EMI Classics); Berlioz/Britten – Les Nuits d’été/Les Illuminations – Davis (EMI Classics); Bizet – Les Pêcheurs de perles – Plasson (EMI Classics); Chabrier – Messe, Air Gwendolyn – Plasson (EMI Classics); Chants Sacrés – Ericson (EMI Classics); Debussy – Mélodies – Michel Beroff (EMI Classics); Duos d’opérettes – Foster/Quilico (EMI Classics); Enesco – Oedipe – Foster (EMI Classics); Fauré mélodies – Michel Dalberto (EMI Classics); Faure – Requiem – Plasson (EMI Classics); Gershwin – Pieśni (EMI Classics); Gluck – Orfeusz i Eurydyka – Gardiner (EMI Classics); Gounod – Messe solenelle de Sainte Cécile – Prêtre (EMI Classics); Gounod – Mors et Vita – Plasson (EMI Classics); Haydn – Harmonien, Messe – Marriner (EMI Classics); Humperdinck – Hänsel und Gretel – Tate (EMI Classics); La Voix du Ciel – Les Triomphes de Barbara Hendricks – (EMI Classics); Mélodies Françaises – Dalberto (EMI Classics); Mozart – Airs de Concert & d'Opéras – Tate (EMI Classics); Mozart – Airs sacrés – Marriner (EMI Classics) Mozart – Mélodies & Lieder – Eihenholz/Pires (EMI Classics); Mozart – Airs d'Opéras et de Concert – Marin (EMI Classics); Negro Spirituals – Dmitri Alexeev (EMI Classics); Operetta Arias – Foster (EMI Classics); Oratorio – utwory Bacha, Vivaldiego, Haydna, Mozarta, Gounoda – (EMI Classics); Orff – Carmina Burana – Welser-Möst (EMI Classics); Poulenc – Stabat Mater i Gloria – Prêtre (EMI Classics); Ravel/Duparc – Pieśni – Gardiner (EMI Classics); Hommage à Jennie Tourel – Staffan Scheja (EMI Classics); Schubert – Pieśni – Radu Lupu (EMI Classics); Spirituals – "Give Me Jesus" – Moses Hogan Singers (EMI Classics); Strauss –

Der Rosenkavalier – Haitink (EMI Classics); Strauss – Lieder – Gothoni (EMI Classics); Strauss – Vier Letzte Lieder – Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI Classics); Tribute to Duke Ellington (EMI Classics); Verdi – Don Carlos – Karajan (EMI Classics); Villa-Lobos – Bachianas Brasileiras – Bátiz (EMI Classics); Walt Disney – Piosenki – Barbara Hendricks sings songs from Walt Disney – The Abbey Road Ensemble/Tunick (EMI Classics); Wolf – Mörike & Goethe Lieder – Pöntinen (EMI Classics); Nordic Songs – Grieg, Sibelius, Rangström, Nielsen – Pöntinen (EMI Classics); Brahms – Requiem – Karajan (DGG); Debussy – La Demoiselle Elue – Barenboïm (DGG); Mahler – II Symfonia – Bernstein (DGG); Mozart – Msza c-moll – Karajan (DGG); Puccini – Turandot – Karajan (DGG) Verdi – Falstaff – Giulini (DGG); Wagner – Parsifal – Karajan (DGG); Chabrier – Le Roi malgré lui – Dutoit (ERATO); Donizetti – Don Pasquale – Ferro (ERATO); Lalo – Le Roi d’Ys – Jordan (ERATO) Puccini – Cyganeria – Conlon (ERATO); Del Tredici – Final Alice – Solti (DECCA); Gershwin – Porgy and Bess – Maazel (DECCA); Haydn – Il Ritorno di Tobia – Doráti (DECCA); Mahler – IV Symfonia – Mehta (DECCA); Strauss – Die Ägyptische Helena – Doráti (DECCA); Autres – Arie z oper francuskich – Tate (PHILIPS); Gershwin – Pieśni – Katia et Marielle Labeque (PHILIPS); Haendel – Salomon – Gardiner (PHILIPS); Haydn – L’Infedeltà Delusa – Doráti (PHILIPS); Haydn – Msza Nelsońska – Davis (PHILIPS); Mozart – La Finta semplice – Schreier (PHILIPS); Mozart – Wesele Figara – Marriner (PHILIPS); Mozart – Idomeneo – Davis (PHILIPS); Mozart – Msza c-moll – Schreier (PHILIPS); Grieg – Peer Gynt – Salonen (CBS); Haendel – Xerxes – Malgoire (CBS); Vivaldi – Motets – Malgoire (CBS) Mahler – IV Symfonia – Salonen (SONY); Mozart – Czarodziejski Flet – Mackerras (TELARC); Orff – Carmina Burana – Mata (RCA).

„…Jazz musi się przede wszystkim czuć. A jeśli potrafi się go śpiewać, będzie się w stanie podołać wielu innym artystycznym wyzwaniom. W jazzie ukryte jest to samo, co u Mozarta – na przykład bardzo prawdziwe, szczere ludzkie emocje. I absolutnie nie można mówić, że to muzyka łatwiejsza. Ellingtona traktuję równie poważnie jak na przykład Szostakowicza, obaj są wybitnymi twórcami…” - Barbara Hendricks.

PORTRAIT with HISTORY Barbara Hendricks

"...The fact that at some point I got involved in jazz is completely natural for me. When I started my education, I listened to jazz and gospel, I was raised on Broadway musicals, and at the same time at school we performed choirs from Bach cantatas. Maybe this is the reason for my open and direct attitude to all music, as long as it is valuable. From high school I also took with me the conviction, instilled in me by my teachers, that in art, the most important thing is quality, not division into categories..." - Barbara Hendricks.

Barbara Hendricks (born November 20, 1948) is an American operatic soprano, concert singer, and humanitarian. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland in Basel since 1985. She is a citizen of Sweden following her marriage to a Swedish citizen.

  Hendricks was born in Stephens, Arkansas to Malvin and Della Mae Hendricks. Her father was a preacher in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and her mother was a teacher. As a result of her parents' professions, the Hendricks family moved around the Deep South, and Barbara grew up steeped in the black musical tradition. While living in Little Rock and attending Horace Mann High School, she sang in Art Porter Sr.'s choir and babysat his children, prompting her to explore Porter's jazz collection. She briefly attended Lane College before transferring to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry at the age of 20. During her time at Nebraska, she sung in the University Singers, and her chance participation in a vocal competition resulted in her attending the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she met mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel. Tourel encouraged her to apply to the Juilliard School, and upon her acceptance, she studied with Tourel and participated in master classes led by soprano Maria Callas. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in music in 1973.

She has two children, Jennie and Sebastian, with her former husband, Swedish pianist and impresario Martin Engstroem. 

In 1974, Hendricks made her professional operatic debut in Europe at the Glyndebourne Festival and in America at the San Francisco Opera. During her career, she has appeared at major opera houses throughout the world, including the Opéra National de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and La Scala. In 1998 she sang Liù in the historical performance of Turandot at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Hendricks has performed more than twenty roles, twelve of which she has recorded.

       "...I met and photographed Barbara Herdricks on September 1, 1989, during rehearsals for a concert to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, which was organized at the Grand Theater as an appeal for peace, with the participation of world stars (including Leonard Bernstein -https://www.czczaplinski.com/post/portret-z-historią-leonard-bernstein-, Samuel Pisar, Liv Ullmann, Lukas Foss, Hermann Prey, Krzysztof Penderecki- https://www.czczaplinski.com/post/portret-z-historią-krzysztof-penderecki- with a live satellite transmission for the first time from Poland abroad to 25 countries..." - Czesław Czapliński.

Hendricks has appeared on film as Mimì in La bohème, and in 1995 she sang the role of Anne Truelove in the Swedish film Rucklarens väg, an adaptation of Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress. In 2007, she appeared in the film Disengagement by Amos Gitai and starring Juliette Binoche. She also recorded Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, which is the main theme for the film. 

Hendricks also performs jazz music and made her jazz debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994. Since that time, she has performed at major jazz festivals around the world. Hendricks is also known for her love of chamber music and has organized a number of chamber music festivals. 

In 2004, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, she created the role of Angel in the world premiere of Péter Eötvös's opera Angels in America, after the play by Tony Kushner. 

In January 2006, she left EMI, and created the new label Arte Verum for which she records exclusively. 

In 2018, Hendricks sang "La Marseillaise" with the Choir of the French Army at the interment ceremony of Simone Veil in the Panthéon. 

Hendricks cites her upbringing in Jim Crow-Era Arkansas as an inspiration for her extensive activist and humanitarian work. 

Hendricks was first appointed as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 1987, and has continued to serve up to the present, making her the longest-serving UN Goodwill Ambassador. She was named named Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador in 2002, and continues to be the only person who has received that title. In this capacity, she has traveled widely across Africa, Asia, and Europe, and performed at several Nansen Refugee Award ceremonies. 

In 1991 and 1993 Hendricks gave two concerts in the war-torn formerly Yugoslavian cities of Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. She performed in Sarajevo with the Sarajevo Opera Chorus and jazz musician Sinan Alimanović. In 1998 she founded the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation, which seeks to facilitate reconciliation where conflicts have already occurred. 

Since 2000, Hendricks has been a member of the Council of the Foundation for the Refugee Education Trust (RET). The RET is dedicated to post-primary education of refugee youth all over the world. 

In 2001 she performed at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo at the invitation of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kofi Annan. In May 2002, she performed at the East Timor Independence Day Ceremony. 

In 1986, Hendricks was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; in 1992 she was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. In 2000, she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. In 2001, Hendricks received the Lions Clubs International Award for the work of her foundation. In 2015, Hendricks received the honorary degree Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"...Jazz must be felt above all. And if you can sing it, you will be able to cope with many other artistic challenges. Jazz contains the same things as Mozart - for example, very real, sincere human emotions. And you absolutely cannot say that it is easier music. I treat Ellington as seriously as, for example, Shostakovich, both are outstanding creators..."- Barbara Hendricks.