Joyce DiDonato – Diva Divo (Opera Arias)

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Joyce DiDonato – Diva Divo (Opera Arias)

Kazushi Ono, Conductor
Orchestre De L’Opera National De Lyon

“Legato that defies gravity and singing that restores your faith in human nature…” ~ BBC Magazine

“This disc is a joy. [It] documents a major artist at the height of her powers and can hardly be recommended too warmly.” ~ The Classical Review

“Perhaps the best thing about this recital is that everything DiDonato sings sounds spontaneous, as if the character – her or himself – were actually experiencing it for the first time.” ~ Classics Today

Joyce DiDonato celebrates the rich dramatic variety of the mezzo-soprano voice in this collection of arias for different characters – of both sexes – from a single opera, or from different operatic treatments of the same story.

Winner: Diapason D'Or de L'Anneé 2011

Joyce DiDonato’s capacity for characterisation is as astounding as the range and flexibility of her voice. As her Virgin Classics recitals of Handel and Rossini have proven, she can charm and touch as a good girl, seduce and seethe as a bad girl, and slip believably into the trousers of a hero. As Opera News said of the Rossini disc, ‘Colbran, The Muse’: “With her sure sense of line and colour, DiDonato takes possession of the repertory, mining every musical and vocal gesture to inhabit each character confidently … Her theatrical sense is magnificent. Musically and dramatically, the disc is perfection.”

This new collection showcases DiDonato’s multi-faceted art – and the wealth of opportunities open to a mezzo-soprano – by presenting her as different characters, both male and female, from the same opera or from different musical treatments of the same story.

Track listing:
1.   “Je suis gris!” (Chérubin) from Massenet’s Chérubin (1905)
2.   “Giunse alfin il momento…” (Susanna) from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
3.   “Deh, vieni, non tardar” (Susanna) from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
4.   “Se mai senti spirarti sul volto” (Sesto) from Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito (1752)
5.   “Ecco il punto, o Vitellia…” (Vitellia) from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito (1791)
6.   “Non più di fiori” (Vitellia) from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito (1791)
7.   “Voi che sapete” (Cherubino) from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
8.   “Contro un cor” (Rosina) from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816)
9.   “Faites-lui mes aveux” (Siébel) from Gounod’s Faust (1859)
10. “D’amour l’ardente flame” (Marguerite) from Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust (1846)
11. “Premiers transports que nul n’oublie” from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette (1839)
12. “Ascolta! Se Romeo t’uccise un figlio… La tremenda ultrice spada” (Romeo) from Bellini’s I Capuleti e i
Montecchi (1830)
13. “Allez, laissez-moi seul… Coeur sans amour, printemps sans roses” (Le Prince Charmand) from
Massenet’s Cendrillon (1899)
14. “Nacqui all’affanno” (Cenerentola) from Rossini’s La Cenerentola (1817)
15. “O frêle corps… Chère Cypris” (Ariane) from Massenet’s Ariane (1906)
16. “Seien wir wieder gut!” (Komponist) from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (1916)

Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Orchestre et Choeur de l’Opéra National de Lyon / Kazushi Ono
Alan Woodbridge, chorus master
with Edgaras Montvidas, tenor; Nabil Suliman, baritone; Elena Semenova, soprano; Pascale Obrecht, mezzo-soprano; Paolo Stupenengo, bass