Joyce DiDonato • Gabrieli Players
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Sinfonia to Act III from the oratorio Solomon, HWV 67
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria of Medea "Dolce riposo"
from the opera Teseo, HWV 9
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Recitative and Aria of Medea "Ira, sdegno, e furore" – "O stringerò nel sen"
from the opera Teseo, HWV 9
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria of Medea "Morirò, ma vendicata"
from the opera Teseo, HWV 9
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Suite Nr. 1 F-Dur HWV 348 from the Water Music
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria of Melissa "Desterò dall'empia dite"
from the opera Amadigi, HWV 11
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria of Serse "Crude furie degl'orridi abissi"
from the opera Serse, HWV 40
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria of Ariodante "Scherza infida in grembo al drudo"
from the opera Ariodante, HWV 33
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Recitative and Aria of Dejanira "Dissembling, false, perfidious Hercules!" – "Cease, ruler of the day"
from the oratorio Hercules, HWV 60
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Recitativo accompagnato of Dejanira "Where shall I fly"
from the oratorio Hercules, HWV 60
End of the concert: approx. 7:50 p.m.
Print programme (PDF)
Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-soprano
Gabrieli Players
Paul McCreesh, Conductor
Joyce DiDonato Sings Handel instead of Rolando Villazón
Joyce DiDonato, Mezzosoprano
© Sheila Rock, Courtesy of Virgin Classics
Print quality photograph download at:
www.joycedidonato.com
Rolando Villazón’s management has announced that the tenor has to cancel all his engagments until the end of the year because of health problems affecting his vocal chords. The Salzburg Festival concert of the Gabrieli Players conducted by Paul McCreesh will take place as scheduled on August 2, 2009 at 6:00 pm at the Großes Festspielhaus. Instead of Rolando Villazón, the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will sing selected arias by George Frideric Handel.
About Joyce DiDonato
The superb mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato raised the emotional temperature to the boiling point while expressing infinite shades of pain and fury in her arias.
The New York Times
About her latest CD release Furore (Virgin Classics), Opera Arias by Handel: “I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a solo Handel disc this much.”
Opera
It is a remarkable package that DiDonato offers: a mezzo cast in milk chocolate, so smooth and agile that it can reach up to a diamond-bright soprano as well as sink to a rich, chesty alto. And then there is the instinctive charisma: she is always engaging… and always intelligently shaping the verse and text.
The Times (London)
A triumph of dramatic fire. Daily Times
Brilliant… exhilarating… searing… fiery… ardent. The Sunday Times (London)
Biography
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, born in Kansas in 1969, is among the world’s most charismatic performers. A cover article in Opera News states, “The buoyant progress of DiDonato’s career… has been one of the happiest opera events of the past decade.”
This year, she has given concerts in all great European cities. Joyce DiDonato sang her first Béatrice in Berlioz’ opera Béatrice et Bénédict at Houston Grand Opera and again in concert performances in Paris with Sir Colin Davis, before returning to the Paris Opéra in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Other highlights include a concert with James Levine and the Metropolitan Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, as well as a world premiere for the New York Philharmonic, and a second appearance at the Royal Opera House for her revival of I barbiere di Siviglia.
For the 2007–08 season, Joyce performed three role debuts. An admired interpreter of Handel, she performed and recorded the title role in Alcina for DG/Archiv, and debuted the heroic lead in Ariodante for Geneva. Her first assumption of the bel canto hero Roméo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi earned her rave reviews at the Paris Opera. She also performed in her two signature Rossini operas in Barcelona and Chicago – La Cenerentola in the Catalan capital and Il barbiere di Siviglia for her debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Recitals at Milan’s La Scala, New York’s Lincoln Center, and in Philadelphia filled out her season.
Her award-winning discography encompasses daring recital discs of both Spanish and American music, world premiere operas, numerous Handel projects, as well as DVDs of Il barbiere di Siviglia and Hercules by George Frideric Handel.