"Unsparing ferocity" as the Sorceress Sycorax in the Met's Enchanted Island

“The mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was Sycorax. She commanded the stage from her first showcase scene, when she plotted her revenge on Prospero in “Maybe soon, maybe now” (music from Handel’s “Teseo”), singing with cool control, then bursting into fearless flights of passagework.”  ~Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera © Ken Howard

“The unsparing ferocity with which DiDonato digs into her music and probes beauties both ravishing and terrible is Callas-like — a comparison invoked often and too lightly but here one richly deserved.” ~ Marion Lignana Rosenberg Classical Review January 2012

“Mezzo Joyce DiDonato displayed pinpoint agility and seemingly endless breath in Sycorax’s varied moods.” ~ James Jordan NY POST January 2012

“Artful and smooth”
Zachary Woolfe, New York Observer

“But not a single uncharged nanosecond came from DiDonato as the sorceress Sycorax; her exciting, accurate vocalism was matched by her knack for flamboyant theatrics.” ~ David Patrick Stearns The Philadelphia Inquirer January 2012

“The best moments came from Ms. DiDonato, a tragic heroine adrift in a sea of comedy.”
~ Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal

“Joyce DiDonato cackled, curled and soared with virtuosic flair in the bitchy-witchy spasms of Sycorax.”  ~Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times

“Joyce DiDonato brings venomous humor and her fabled technique to Sycorax.”
~ Manuela Hoelterhoff, Bloomberg Businessweek