Good trouble
Nobody emotes like Joyce DiDonato, and this week Parterre Box spotlights her new recording of Dido and Aeneas with a look at a recent live performance in the part.
joyce didonato
Carthago DiDonato est
For our first review in a new series, we turn to the new recording of Dido and Aeneas featuring Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres and Maxim Emelyanychev leading Il Pomo d’Oro.
Women of the Hours
In its first go-around in November 2022, Kevin Puts’s The Hours (libretto by Greg Pierce based on the novel by Michael Cunningham and the screenplay for the Stephen Daldry’s 2002 film was a box office bullseye for the Metropolitan Opera.
Berlioz and Wagner
John Nelson conducts Michael Spyres and Joyce DiDonato in a live broadcast from Strasbourg
Natural woman
Joyce DiDonato’s Eden immerses listeners within a centuries-spanning musical meditation that channels the majesty of our natural world.
Unhappy ‘Hours’
The film of The Hours failed to effectively weave together the novel’s trio of threads of interiority about suicide and secondarily literary creation. I wondered if an opera would stand a better chance at achieving that? Based on Tuesday’s diva-encrusted stage premiere of Kevin Puts and Greg Pierce’s The Hours, its creators didn’t pull it off either.
Consistently enthralling
To conclude its triumphant season, last week the Met Orchestra performed its annual Carnegie Hall concerts under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and once again performed superbly.
Theodora
A concert performance featuring Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres, with Il Pomo d’Oro Choir and Orchestra conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.
Dreaming a world
Fueled by a fierce intelligence, deep earnestness, exceptional eloquence, and social media savvy, Joyce DiDonato is a presence and a power, as much when speaking and thinking as when singing. Who better to imagine a program that would suit this (we hope) unique moment?
Joyce DiDonato Live in Concert
“American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings a program of alluring and acrobatic arias, accompanied by piano and chamber ensemble, in a unique venue—the converted Jahrhunderthalle in Germany’s Ruhr area.”
Werther
A change of pace this afternoon: Joyce DiDonato and Piotr Beczala sing excerpts from Werther.
Keep the Rome fires burning
Handel’s biting Agrippina finally arrived at the Metropolitan Opera Thursday evening 310 years after its Venetian premiere.
Diary of the dead
Joyce DiDonato’s take on Winterreise is a conceptual misstep that, song after song, frustratingly dilutes and distracts from an often rewarding musical performance.
Moods for moderns
Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, always with a gift for gab, is ever more loquacious in concerts, often talking directly to the audience.
Come and knock on her door
High concept! Joyce DiDonato is Mrs. Roper!
Another sloe-eyed vamp
The Met Live in 2018-2020 HD series (including Joyce DiDonato‘s role debut as Carlotta Campion) is now on sale.
Queen of the damned
“Semiramide—a better opera than this dude expected!”
Better call Gaul
Bellini’s Norma Monday evening didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing.
One Handel, one heart
I don’t usually attend a performance of an opera I’ve known well most of my life expecting a revelation.
Start the revolution with me
The Bayerische Staatsoper just announced, in addition to their usual bounty of webcasts, two special presentations: a repeat of Semiramide and a live telecast of Andrea Chenier.
Webcast: Semiramide
Watch and discuss, cher public, as the Bayerische Staatsoper streams a new production of Rossini’s Semiramide boasting a starry cast including Joyce DiDonato, Alex Esposito, Daniela Barcellona and Lawrence Brownlee.
Harmony of contrasts
Joyce DiDonato’s atest album, In War & Peace: Harmony through music, is more specific than it sounds.
Bunny hop
“Grammy Award winner and international opera star Joyce DiDonato will perform on October 3 in White Rabbit Red Rabbit.”
Tucker everlasting
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s annual gala promises (note, promises) a particularly glittery roster this year.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
