The unsingable Jumalattaret in its Czech premiere with Barbara Hannigan 

A Walk Through a Minefield with Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou

“In John Zorn’s Jumalattaret, I can show everything I’ve got as a singer. It is as if I were turning myself inside out and saying: ‘Here I am!’” says Prague Spring 2026 Artist-in-Residence Barbara Hannigan about one of the most eagerly anticipated works of this year’s festival. On Wednesday 20 May, she will perform this extraordinary piece, whose every bar the New York Times once described as “a minefield of intonation and technique”, together with the French pianist Bertrand Chamayou in its Czech premiere at Dvořák Hall in Prague’s Rudolfinum. Alongside Zorn’s work, music by Olivier Messiaen and Alexander Scriabin will also be heard. 

In this song cycle, in which the American multi-instrumentalist, composer and jazz musician John Zorn set to music fragments from the Finnish national epic Kalevala, the singer gradually assumes the roles of four pagan Finnish goddesses: Akka, Louhi, Tellervo and Ilmatar. Hannigan astonishes here with the vast range of her voice, from soaring high notes to throat singing. She whispers, hums and laughs; at moments her voice vibrates like birdsong, while her partner Bertrand Chamayou displays his mastery in the unplayable passages of the piano part. Jumalattaret is simply a riveting work, and hearing it live will be one of the highlights of Prague Spring 2026. You will experience everything a listener could wish for: virtuosity, spiritual depth and a generous measure of mystery. Join us on 20 May at the Rudolfinum for a journey into the world of Finnish myth.

Would you like to take a look inside the unsingable score of Jumalattaret and learn more about how the work came into being? In a short video, Barbara Hannigan herself will guide you through it:

And in the second video, you can hear some interesting facts about working with Bertrand Chamayou: