Though she’s one of Europe’s most acclaimed and sought-after artists, the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg’s appearances on this side of the Atlantic have been surprisingly few: Her New York debut came just three years ago.

But she will return on Thursday for an ambitious program of early-18th-century arias: “The Swedish Nightingale,” joined by the Venice Baroque Orchestra at Zankel Hall. A richly expressive and candid approach to the quite formal style of that period of music has made her a beloved Baroque diva, and one of the greatest singers you’ve (probably) never heard of.

The avian moniker of the title was initially attached to Jenny Lind, the celebrated 19th-century Swedish soprano who toured America in grand style, presented by P.T. Barnum. Ms. Hallenberg, on the other hand, made an unobtrusive American debut in the mid-1990s in Minnesota with “Solitaire,” a new opera by Björn Hallman, and reappeared a few years later as Dejanira in Cavalli’s “Ercole Amante” at the Boston Early Music Festival, her only appearances on this continent in staged opera to date.

In this century, Ms. Hallenberg appeared in the United States in 2013 to perform Pergolesi’s intimate “Stabat Mater” in the most incongruous space imaginable: the Hollywood Bowl. And, in 2017, New Yorkers at long last got to hear this vocal phenomenon in the dazzling role of the eunuch Vagaus in Vivaldi’s oratorio “Juditha Triumphans.”