Joyce DiDonato Embarks on U.S. Recital Tour, Capped by Carnegie Hall Recital Debut

A singer could scarcely be hotter than Joyce DiDonato right now: recently named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine, the mezzo-soprano has a new Virgin/EMI album just out (Diva, Divo, released Jan 25); recently starred in the lead role of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at Houston Grand Opera; and soon embarks on an eight-city U.S. recital tour (Feb 8 – March 6), capping it with her main-stage Carnegie Hall recital debut. The tour program will see DiDonato and pianist David Zobel perform songs and arias by Haydn, Rossini, Hahn and Chaminade as they travel from Fort Worth, Santa Monica, and her hometown of Kansas City, MO, and on to Chicago, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and finally New York.

At her Carnegie Hall recital, DiDonato will also give the world premiere of the song suite The Breaking Waves by Heggie, a composer to whom the mezzo has been close since making her 2002 New York City Opera debut in the role of Sister Helen Prejean in his Dead Man Walking. (DiDonato also recorded Heggie’s The Deepest Desire: Four Dramatic Songs of Praise as the title work of her 2006 Eloquentia solo album, The Deepest Desire.) The mezzo’s main tour program consists of Haydn’s Scena di Berenice, the aria “Assisa appiè d’un salice” from Rossini’s Otello, and songs by Rossini and French composer Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944). Varying the rest of the program from city to city, DiDonato will also blend in Italian rarities by Leoncavallo, Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, and Vincenzo Di Chiara, as well as the cycle “Venezia” by Reynaldo Hahn.

TOUR DATES

February 8
Fort Worth, Texas
Bass Recital Hall
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 11
Santa Monica, California
Broad Stage Recital Series
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 13
Kansas City, Missouri
Harriman-Jewell Recital Series
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 15
Washington, D.C.
Vocal Arts Society
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 18
Chicago, Illinois
The University of Chicago Presents
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 20
Atlanta, Georgia
Spivey Hall
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

February 28
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Perelman Theater
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn

March 6
New York, New York
Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall (Carnegie recital debut)
Recital with pianist David Zobel
Program: Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade, Hahn