Joyce DiDonato

How Do You Handle Loneliness On The Road?

Anastasia Tsioulcas — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:09:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aeE0xhhl-w

The Met Opera: Donizetti's MARIA STUARDA, Jan. 19th at 1 pm

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:49:55 +0000

Joyce DiDonato's performance in the title role of Mary, Queen of Scots, "will be pointed to as a model of singing," full of "plush richness and aching beauty," in this Met premiere production. Elza van den Heever is "a vocally burnished and emotionally tempestuous" Elizabeth (New York Times). Matthew Polenzani sings Leicester and Maurizio Benini conducts.

Saturday, January 19th, 1 to 4 pm.
Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda

Joyce, Queen of Mezzos

Jim Cotter — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:41:03 +0000

WRTI will broadcast Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda live from The Metropolitan Opera on January 19th. The performance will also be shown live in hundreds of movie theaters around the world.

In this tale of royal intrigue, set in 16th-century England, the title role of Mary, Queen of Scots is sung by Joyce DiDonato. WRTI’s Jim Cotter spoke with the superstar mezzo-soprano about her latest role, how she constructs her characters, and how her years at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts were more useful personally and professionally than artistically.

Today, Joyce DiDonato is firmly ensconced on opera’s "A" list. But when she was training at AVA in the 1990s, such a future outcome seemed very unlikely.

DIDONATO: I wasn’t a star singer there and it wasn’t clear that I would go on and have a career, I had to go deep inside myself and ask do I still want to stay with this?

COTTER: So why did stick with it?

DIDONATO: I had to.

After Philadelphia, she had spells in the young artist programs at Santa Fe Opera and Houston Grand Opera where she says it all began to come together for her vocally.

COTTER: The voice started getting free and I started too find my voice, and that needed to happen. And happily it did and I continuously work to find more freedom.

DiDonato believes that in order to fully explore roles she needs to understand what the composer wanted, the historical context of the story and bring her own life experiences to the process of creating a fully fleshed-out character.

DIDONATO: The pain that I’ve gone through, in various ways, it always comes out of nowhere and socks you over the head. Of course I use that. It informs who I am as a human being and therefore it informs who I am as an artist.

The Doomed Mary Queen of Scots: Houston Grand Opera, Dec. 1st at 1 pm

WRTI Staff — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:20:52 +0000

The tragic opera Maria Stuarda, part of Donizetti's “Tudor Trilogy” of operas, reveals the deadly rivalry between two monarchs: Mary, Queen of Scots, and her cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England. Elizabeth has imprisoned Mary for treason, but agrees to meet with her at the urging of the Earl of Leicester—Elizabeth's advisor and Mary's lover. Tempers flare, insults are hurled, and Mary's fate is sealed. She contemplates her death with great dignity and virtuosic bel canto singing in the final scene.

Joyce DiDonato: Sublime Singing Makes The Unreal Real

Anastasia Tsioulcas — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:29:00 +0000

It's true — opera is totally over the top.

Rudolf Buchbinder--The Clay Studio--Nina Jablonski and The Evolution of Skin Color--Joyce DiDonato

Jim Cotter, Susan Lewis and David Patrick Stearns — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Jim Cotter speaks with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. He performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Philadelphia Orchestra this week.

Susan Lewis takes us to The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, a regional hub for ceramics education, creation, and exhibition.

A conversation with anthropologist Nina Jablonski. She lectures about The Evolution of Human Skin Color at the Wagner Free Institute of Science on Saturday.

Philadelphia Inquirer reporter David Patrick Stearns profiles mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. The AVA alum is back in Philadelphia for a Sunday recital.