And the Stéphano sounded familiar – who was that boy? That was no boy, but the American mezzo Joyce DiDonato, who is also singing
Cherubino, in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” at the Met. Maybe someday she will be able to play a girl. But girl or boy, she is
sensational, singing unerringly, eating up the stage, making it come alive. An opera hand in the aisles referred to Ms. DiDonato’s
Stéphano as “luxurious casting”: She will not appear in such minor roles for long. She will be a star, pure and simple.
But from her, Stéphano did not seem a minor role. It seemed absolutely crucial.
It was the season's first performance of Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro”
(“The Marriage of Figaro”) at the Metropolitan Opera. [T]he ensemble ...included one
debuting singer of note. The American mezzo
Joyce DiDonato has been heralded in other appearances on both sides of the Atlantic,
and her performance in the “trousers” role of Cherubino lived up to expectations.
In her two showpiece arias, DiDonato displayed a voice of considerable allure enhanced by excellent
phrasing. She also acted the part of the impetuous, romantic teenager with theatrical flair.
There were other debuts on Wednesday night - including the sensational one of Joyce DiDonato, the American
mezzo-soprano portraying Cherubino. The Met, and the opera world at large, have many mezzos who can sing
this role: Susan Graham and Jossie Perez are two. Make Ms. DiDonato prominent on the list. She has loads
of personality, vocally and otherwise. She played Cherubino lustily - there was a lot of testosterone in this
portrayal. (Recall that Cherubino is a pants role.) And she sang those great arias - "Non so piu" and
"Voi che sapete" - stylishly and compellingly. They sounded neither tired nor hackneyed. Ms. DiDonato has
a beautiful voice, and it is beautiful in interesting ways: There's a touch of smoke in it, and of opulence.
It would have been a memorable night for Joyce DiDonato alone.
“La Scala's recent revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's much-traveled production of Rossini's La Cenerentola
(first staged in the early 1970s) will be remembered perhaps above all for Joyce DiDonato's captivating Angelina.
The American mezzo's heartwarming stage presence (charming even during curtain calls), idiomatic diction, limpid
tone and fluency in florid music (she is one of the few singers today who boast a respectable trill) won her a
well-deserved ovationon July 11. Unlike other recent interpreters of the role, she rightly made no attempt to
play down the character's vulnerability, or her generosity in the finale, where the rondo proved musically graceful
and psychologically revealing rather than (as it often sounds) brittle and demonstrative. This approach to the role
suited the production to perfection.”
– Opera News, October 2005
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro
"Joyce DiDonato makes an equally enchanting Rosina...the sound is round and clear as a bell, and the phrasing
is wonderfully musical."
– Financial Times, August 19, 2005
"The American Joyce DiDonato has no rivals today in the role of Rosina for her subtlety, elegance and extraordinary voice."
– Il Gazzettino, August 12, 2005
"Joyce DiDonato is a complete Rosina, astonishing vocally in the beauty of the instrument, taste, style, confidence,
and with a huge, engulfing personality, with which she underlines all the facets of the character: in the lesson scene
she offers a true singing lesson."
– Il Manifesto, August 12, 2005
“Above all was the wonderful Joyce DiDonato, a Rosina ‘to frame’. Her evolution as a character, the clean voice and
intonation conquered everybody: essentially perfect.”
– Il Messaggero-Pesaro, August 11, 2005
"Most of all the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, a consummate Rosina, brilliant, highly musical and rightly so,
enthusiastically applauded."
– Radiogiornale, August 11, 2005
Maria Stuarda, Grand Théâtre de Genève
Joyce DiDonato is the impetuous Elizabeth who would eat men for breakfast given half the chance.
From her very first note, she decrees who’s queen bee in this hive with secure tone, a soaring
top that flashes metal when required and impressive, punchy diction. It’s more than enough to
blast any Armada out of the water and is the best thing I have heard her do.
The Financial Times, Apr. 6, 2005
D’autant que le contraste est frappant avec l’Elizabeth de Joyce di Donato.
Ses ressources vocales impressionnantes lui permettent des aigus claironnants,
presque métalliques, et des vocalises lancées avec aplomb. Avec, qui plus est,
des nuances infinies de couleur et d’émission, elle n’a aucune peine à imposer
son personnage de souveraine intransigeante et jalouse, magnifiquement servie
aussi par son sens de la scène.
Quel bonheur d’entendre Joyce Di Donato dans ce rôle impossible de souveraine amoureuse, mais très seule
avec sa jalousie et son intransigeance cruelle. Pas une inflexion de ce personnage ambigu n’échappe à la
cantatrice qui insuffle à chaque recoin de ses vocalises l’expression la plus travaillée, la plus fine.
Elle varie à foison l’émission, la coloration pour donner vie à cette reine vengeresse.
De ses aigus triomphants, Joyce Di Donato (Elisabetta)… lance ses airs avec une autorité qui alerte chacun
de la souveraineté indiscutable de son personnage. Joignant le geste à la voix, un bras brusquement
à demi levé, trois doigts jaillissant d’une main crispée, elle impose sa royauté. En reine du plateau,
elle scelle le climat. S’approchant de l’amant qu’elle convoite, elle l’embrasse soudain fougueusement,
dans un baiser osé, admirable geste faisant enfin pénétrer le théâtre, le vrai, dans l’univers du
belcanto si souvent laissé à la seule expression vocale.
None of this would be much without a hair-raising performance by Joyce DiDonato as Dejanira, beyond brave,
skirting caricature in its unbearable freight of woe but utterly convincing, vocally unconfined.
The Times, Jan. 11, 2005
La distribution est de haut niveau dominée par la mezzo soprano américaine Joyce DiDonato fascinante
en mégère jalousie et frustrée qui termine comme des malades de Charcot à la
Salpêtrière.
Le Figaro, Dec. 6. 2004
Figure centrale de l’opéra, le rôle de Déjanira nécessite des moyens vocaux et un investissement
dramatique à la mesure des grandes héroines lyriques (Traviata, Isolde, Elektra…), pour notre
plus grande satisfaction et la réussite de cette production (créée à Aix cet été), Joyce DiDonato
se révèle parfaitement à la hauteur. Très convaincante dans les circonvolutions de l’écriture baroque,
captivante dans la tragédie du doute affreux qui la ronge, la mezzo américaine signe ici une
performance remarquable, on ne souhaite que la voir plus souvent à Paris.
Dans cet « Hercules », il ne restera, gravées, qu’une seule voix, celle de Dejanira, exorbité,
éructée, dans sa danse, sa transe de macabre démence. C’est là que, l’espace d’un
« Where shall I Fly » en apnée, les voies désespérément parallèles tracées par William Christie
et Luc Bondy se seront croisées, comme aspirées par les imprécations de Joyce DiDonato,
tragédienne inédite et transfigurée.
Et si ceux-là composent, Joyce DiDonato se consume, ose l’excès, l’hybris, expressionniste,
variant les couleurs du timbre à l’infini, jusqu’à l’insoupçonnable : le moelleux, la lumière,
mais aussi le tranchant, l’aigreur. C’est enfin le vrai théâtre, qui se jette a corps perdu,
qui frôle le cri, les larmes, le sang. Le dérèglement de Dejanira est là, d’affliction en joie,
de soupçon en terreur, de mépris en espoir : « Resign thy club and lion’s spoils, » pointilliste,
perfide, puis « Cease, ruler of the day » à la corde, nourri de silence. Hideuse, cette folie,
où le chant, en imprécations, devient auto-destructeur – ne plus penser la vocalise que comme un
poison. Ce qui suit – air, duo, chœur, joie de façade – restera dans l’ombre de cette figure
convulsée, d’agonie silencieuse, captivante.
William Christie pilote ses Arts florissants et un casting de choc : Joyce DiDonato, ses coloratures fruitées et ses
portamentos dans l’émission pour une scène de folie incandescente.
Libération, Dec. 4, 2004
Joyce DiDonato is outstanding in this role. Vocally convincing in her violently changing emotions
— playful in teasing the none-too-bright Hercules (William Shimell), snide in feigned friendliness
with her rival Princess Iole — it is in the realms of guilt and madness that her singing becomes
as compelling as her obsessive behaviour.
The Independent, Dec. 28, 2004
Hercules, Aix-en-Provence
The American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was definitely the star of the opera. She has an impressive
vocal range, very powerful top notes and sings the coloraturas with a natural ease. She delighted the
audience in the role of Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, whose all-encompassing jealousy drives her into
insanity. DiDonato made a tremendous impression with her strong physical acting. The varying stages of
her personality, from a mourning widow, a wounded wife and finally a psychological wreck, were vocally
expressed through languishing arias, contrasted with furious, almost yelled phrases.
Opera Japonica, Sept. 2004
Hercules concert, Beaune International Festival of Baroque Opera
It was a tour de force, with jaw-dropping performances by American mezzo Joyce DiDonato as Dejanira
and Swedish alto Malena Ernmann as Lichas. Both not only sang with lyric beauty and elegantly iron-clad
control of flights of baroque ornamentation but also acted so well they seemed to transform the concert
platform, packed with musicians, into the emotionally turbulent apartments of Hercules and his household.
The Australian, July 29, 2004
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera’s new production of “The Barber of Seville,“ by the Australian team of
director Lindy Hume and designer Dan Potra, tries awfully hard to be different and clever. Ultimately,
it succeeds. But what takes the breath away is Joyce DiDonato’s Rosina, her tone pearly but pliant,
her coloratura effortless, and everything tellingly expressive. She even has a real trill.
The Dallas Morning News, May 11, 2004
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, San Francisco Opera
As a participant in the 1997 Merola Opera Program, DiDonato gave an unforgettable account of the title role
in Rossini’s “Cenerentola” in Stern Grove and followed it up a year later with an excellent
Schwabacher Debut Recital.
But not even those scintillating foretastes quite prepared a listener for the splendors of DiDonato’s singing,
or the amazing growth in her artistic control over the intervening years. Her vocal tone was exhilarating,
from the plush, throaty tones of her lower register to the thrillingly precise and ringing top notes. And her
control of the coloratura in the opening showpiece, “Una voce poco fa,” was both flawless and
delightfully casual, to the point of tossing off several intricate, sprightly variations.
DiDonato’s ease onstage has also improved immeasurably over the years, with a certain stateliness
giving way to spry responsiveness. The result was a performance of rare physical grace and vocal allure.
The San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 2004
The Cunning Little Vixen, Royal Opera House of London
DiDonato, on the other hand, with a rich, bubbly mezzo with plenty of flesh on it, was able to present an
all-round successful portrayal of the handsome, swaggering mate that the Vixen acquires during Act II.
Her vibrant personality could light up the stage with a handful of phrases or gestures.
Opera News, May 2003
Dead Man Walking, New York City Opera
Mezzo Joyce DiDonato’s singing and acting of Sister Helen seem not merely perfect but a further
creation beyond what composer and librettist could have imagined. Only Helen Prejean herself, sitting
in the State Theater’s First Ring on opening night, could have taken the full measure of the
impersonation. The role’s inordinate length seemed somehow to nourish DiDonato’s voice;
her moods traveled easily and truthfully among religious rapture, clouds of doubt, sassy humor and feistiness.
Opera News, December 2002
Resurrection, Houston Grand Opera
Joyce DiDonato, as Katerina Maslova, produced a complete performance, singing and acting to the highest standard.
Maslova is a role of terrifying complexity and diversity and DiDonato coped with its many transformations and
delivered one of the most powerful performances I can remember.
Her voice, a proper mezzo rather than a ‘short’ soprano, has substantial reserves of power.
Both lush and focused, it lies somewhere between Balsta and Bartoli (albeit minus their idiosyncrasies).
Her technique is fearless, the sound especially distinctive in quiet passages, where the tone can narrow
down to an almost ‘white’ thread.
DiDonato has typical American polish, but more than that, a real personality, is at work. The opening
item, Haydn’s ‘Arianna a Naxos’, is a classic (and Classical) warm-up number, but from the first moment
DiDonato’s interpretative heat was on max. The piece became a dramatic ‘scena’ that deployed rather
than tested her full technical and expressive armoury and tingled the spine at its presto finale.
Finally, ‘Cara Speme’: its fusion of poised vocalism and open-hearted expression exemplified why
Joyce DiDonato deserves a place of honour amongst today’s lyric mezzos.
Opera Now, May/June 2004
New York Recital Debut
[DiDonato] and her brilliant accompanist, Brian Zeger, constructed an absorbing, unusual program that showed off
the full range of her gifts. Owner of a lovely voice, the basic quality of which is perhaps more gleaming than
mellow, with a wide, even range and a shining top, she uses her assets with uncommon flexibility and skill.
Some of this can be learned; her ability to inhabit her material and communicate its essence without apparent
effort has to be innate.
Perhaps the encores best encapsulated DiDonato’s success. Starting with a hilarious romp through a Cole
Porter rarity about an oyster’s journey through high society, she exploded in a demonstration of coloratura
virtuosity with the only warhorse of the evening, a dazzling ‘Una voce poco fa’ that deserved the ovation it
received. She sent the reluctant audience into the night with a compelling ‘Cara speme,’ Sesto’s poignant
aria of hope from Handel’s Giulio Cesare.
When DiDonato manages to squeeze another recital into her schedule, an early dash for tickets is strongly recommended.
Opera News, Jan. 2004
Washington Vocal Arts Recital
Joyce DiDonato could have performed only Haydn’s dramatic scene ‘Arianna a Naxos’ at her
Vocal Arts Society recital at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday, and that 20 minutes of masterly singing alone would
have made devoted fans of the Terrace Theater audience. This splendid mezzo invested the piece with a recital’s
worth of interpretive smarts, from playful eroticism to imploding self-delusion to near-catatonic depression.
And then there was DiDonato’s voice. The tone is plush throughout a formidable range, with a plummy lower
register and a middle and upper voice made luminous by a softly flickering vibrato. She’s got a baroque singer’s
talent for launching ravishingly pure high notes, but she can unbutton the voice to fill the room with a thrilling
jolt of sound.
If her sultry tang in Obradors’s songs, or her breathy urgency in songs by Rossini, brought Cecilia Bartoli
to mind, DiDonato engaged in less all-out emotional brinksmanship than the Italian mezzo so often does, relying
more on the natural refulgence of her voice and finding a centeredness and poise within the drama.
The Washington Post, Oct. 2003
Schwabacher Debut Recital
Here is a singer with a remarkable combination of power, agility and precision, as well as the interpretive
resources to put those gifts to work. Her vocal quality is lush and marked by a range of colors, yet she
tears through the most demanding colorature writing without missing a step. Just as impressive as the
bravura passages was DiDonato’s delivery of slow, lyrical writing. Her flawless intonation and stellar
breath control allowed her to spin out long, seamless legato phrases that never faltered.
DiDonato opened her Schubert set with as radiantly serene an account of ‘Nacht und Traume’
as I hope to hear. During the piano introduction, DiDonato simply stood there — then opened her mouth and,
seemingly without any preparation, began to spin out a golden, utterly perfect melodic line. For those few
minutes, time seemed to stop.
Joyce DiDonato is exceptional in the title role, technically staggering and deeply touching in her characterisation.
The Guardian, Oct. 2005
Standing out from the pack, and definitely the reason to buy the set, is the expressive, technically assured mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato,
whose Angelina is a person of substance, a girl so spirited that she verges on the subversive. Her authority is palpable at the entrance
to Ramiro’s palace as she sings, “Let him who would have a wife offer me respect, love and kindness!” Spanning a range of two and a half
octaves, Donato uses coloratura as an expressive tool, relying on her stupendous control of messa di voce and completely perfect trills
to create a character of sensitivity and true nobility.
Opera News
Although the whole performance is top-notch, the main reason for owning this Cenerentola is the warm, delightfully human, and stunningly
sung Cinderella of Joyce DiDonato. There is no paucity of fine, recorded Cenerentolas (Bartoli, Larmore, Baltsa), but DiDonato, an
under-recorded American mezzo, catches precisely the right tone of vulnerability and goodness in the character while never stinting on
the coloratura fireworks we expect from the role. She's always in character – modest and kind; it's a beautiful, understated portrayal.
Le beau péruvien partage les honneurs avec la superbe Angelina de Joyce Di Donato, authentique contraltino que l'Amérique semble tarder à
découvrir. Bien que de puissance modérée, la voix est belle et homogène, le médium est gorgé de couleurs, la vocalisation
est délicate mais souveraine: a-t-on chanté le rondo final aussi vite - et aussi bien - depuis Bartoli? Joyce Di Donato
chante Rossini comme peu de ses collègues, elle ne sacrifie jamais un très beau cantabile aux exigences virtuoses de l'écriture
(pourtant relevées avec un rare brio), tout en demeurant surprenante d'invention dans les variations (surtout vers l'aigu), et
sans effort apparent. Au surplus, la chanteuse se double d'une interprète intelligente, actrice sensible, touchante en Cendrillon
et impérative en princesse nouvellement consacrée.
La Scena Musicale
Amor e Gelosia, CD of Handel Duets, EMI
All are most beautifully sung by Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce DiDonato, who has just the right firmness and
focus for a castrato role (as the mezzo voices almost always are here); both phrase beautifully, and
articulate and express the words so clearly and so tellingly. They ornament the da capo sections in a
natural and tasteful fashion. The accompaniments, done by a chamber group under Alan Curtis with much
refined timing of detail, add to the pleasures of this truly delectable CD. Indeed, listening to it is
a bit like eating a meal of delicious puddings.
Gramophone, July 2004
The term ‘instant classic’ is overused and oxymoronic, but certain records proclaim their
durability at first hearing. A new CD of duets from Handel operas, ‘Amor e Gelosia’
(‘Love and Jealousy’), on Virgin, is one.
Fleshing out the drama in the [some] selections may require imagination. But listeners enthralled by
the exquisite blending of Ms. Ciofi’s and Ms. DiDonato’s complementary voices won’t mind.
Music is seldom more effervescent than in ‘Scherzando sul tuo volto’ (‘Gazing with
heedless wonder on thy face’) from ‘Rinaldo’ or seldom more wrenching than
in ‘Io t’abbraccio’ (‘With this embrace’) from ‘Rodelinda.’
And the anguished parting of two lovers from ‘Teseo’ that ends the record is irresistible.
Ms. DiDonato’s sound is no less attractive, her timbre like topsoil, rich and earthy. And her
dramatic skills are equally compelling.
The New York Times, July 11, 2004
The Italian soprano and the American mezzo are two of the outstanding singers of a rising generation,
prized primarily for their prowess in later music. On this evidence, they belong to the elite of current
Handel singers, too: their voices intertwine rapturously, like mating snakes, in the love duets from
Rodelinda, Orlando, and, above all, the beautiful Per le porte del tormento, from Sosarme, one of Handel’s
greatest inspirations in the genre.
With her keen edged but never shrill soprano, Ciofi blends surprisingly well with DiDonato’s plusher mezzo,
and their stylistic instincts are immaculate. No Handelian will want to miss this superlative singing,
and anyone yet to be hooked by this gorgeous music will be bowled over.
The Sunday Times, July 4, 2004
Benvenuto Cellini, Hector Berlioz
Mezzo Joyce DiDonato sings Ascanio with an enthusiasm that ideally characterizes Cellini’s apprentice:
she nearly dominates every scene she’s in.
However you feel about Vivaldi, sacred vocal music, Latin, or mezzos – you will be impressed, even thrilled by
DiDonato’s singing, her complete technical and stylistic command, her energy, sure intonation, and her winning
ability to enliven and inhabit and project every virtuosic feature of one of Vivaldi’s most engaging vocal creations.
