Program Notes: Joyce DiDonato - Eden

January 20, 2023 |

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Joyce DiDonato: EDEN

Friday, January 20, 2023
7:30 PM | Bing Concert Hall

Season Sponsor:

Media Sponsor:

PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you.

Artists

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Il Pomo d'Oro
iSing Silicon Valley

Program

Joyce DiDonato: EDEN

CHARLES IVES The Unanswered Question

RACHEL PORTMAN The First Morning of the World

Text: Gene Scheer
Commissioned by Linda Nelson in memory of her beloved Stuart

GUSTAV MAHLER Rückert-Lieder: II. "Ich atmet' einen linden
Duft!"

Text: Friedrich Rückert

MARCO UCCELLINI Sinfonia terza (a cinque stromenti) op.7

BIAGIO MARINI Scherzi e canzone Op.5: III. “Con le stelle
in Ciel che mai” (Natività di Christo,
per canto solo da cantarsi nel chitarrone)

Text: anon.

JOSEF MYSLIVEČEK Aria: “Toglierò le sponde al mare” (Angelo
di giustizia)

Libretto: Giovanni Granelli
Oratorio Adamo ed Eva (Part II)

AARON COPLAND 8 Poems of Emily Dickinson
for voice and chamber orchestra:
I. Nature, the gentlest mother

GIOVANNI VALENTINI Sonata enharmonica

FRANCESCO CAVALLI Aria: "Piante ombrose" (Calisto)

Libretto: Giovanni Faustini
Opera La Calisto (Act 1, Scene 14)

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Danza degli spettri e delle furie:
Allegro non troppo

Opera Orfeo ed Euridice Wq. 30
Opera Ezio Wq. 15
Libretto: Pietro Metastasio

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Recitativo accompagnato: “Misera, dove son!”…

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Aria: “Ah! non son io che parlo” (Fulvia)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria: “As with rosy steps the morn” (Irene)

Dramatic oratorio Theodora HWV 68 (Part I)

GUSTAV MAHLER Rückert-Lieder: III. “Ich bin der Welt
abhanden gekommen”

Text: Friedrich Rückert

Biographies

Joyce DiDonato
Mezzo-soprano
“ The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist—one of the finest singers of our time—but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.”
—Jake Heggie, Gramophone

Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her varied and highly acclaimed discography. She is also widely celebrated for the bel canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti.

Joyce’s exciting 2022/23 season includes further touring of her newly released album EDEN around Europe and the USA with Il Pomo d’Oro and Maxim Emelyanychev, Virginia Wolf in The Met’s world-premiere production of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts’s The Hours, Patricia Westertord in Tod Machover's Overstory Overture at Alice Tully Hall in New York and Seoul Arts Center in South Korea and a residency at Musikkollegium Winterthur.

Recent highlights have included European tours of her baroque-inspired programme My Favourite Things with Il Pomo d’Oro, in cities including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Bucharest, Barcelona, Antwerp, and Lisbon, as well as her Winterreise and In My Solitude recital programmes with pianist and long-time collaborator Craig Terry. Joyce also returned to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Irene in Handel’s Theodora alongside Julia Bullock and Jakub Józef Orliński.

In opera, Joyce’s recent roles include Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at the Royal Opera House, Didon Les Troyens at the Vienna State Opera; Sesto, Cendrillon and Adalgisa Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanchev; Sister Helen Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and London’s Barbican Centre; Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera House, and Charlotte Werther at the Royal Opera.

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Joyce has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra USA under Sir Antonio Pappano.

An exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics/Erato, Joyce’s expansive discography includes Les Troyens which in 2018 won the Recording (Complete Opera) category at the International Opera Awards, the Opera Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards and Gramophone’s Recording of the Year, and Handel’s Agrippina which won the Gramophone Opera Recording and Limelight Opera Recording of the Year awards in 2020. Joyce’s other albums include her celebrated Winterreise with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Songplay, In War & Peace which won the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award, Stella di Napoli, her Grammy- Award-winning Diva Divo and Drama Queens. Other honors include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and Recital of the Year awards, and an induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.

Il Pomo d'Oro
The ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro was founded in 2012. It is characterized by an authentic, dynamic interpretation of operas and instrumental works from the Baroque and Classical period. The musicians are all well-known specialists and are among the best in the field of historical performance practice. The ensemble so far worked with the conductors Riccardo Minasi, Maxim Emelyanychev, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri and Francesco Corti. Concert master Zefira Valova leads the orchestra in various projects. Since 2016 Maxim Emelyanychev has been its chief conductor, and since 2019 Francesco Corti is principal guest conductor.

Il Pomo d'Oro is a regular guest in prestigious concert halls and festivals all over Europe. After the worldwide success of the program In War and Peace with Joyce DiDonato, in 2020 Il Pomo d’Oro and Maxim Emelyanychev presented My favorite things with the and is now on tour worldwide with Eden, the latest program and album of Il Pomo d’Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev and the American Mezzosoprano.

The discography of Il Pomo d'Oro includes several opera recordings: G. F. Händel's Agrippina, Serse, Tamerlano, Partenope, and Ottone; Leonardo Vinci's Catone in Utica; and Alessandro Stradella’s La Doriclea. It features Recitals with the countertenors Jakub Józef Orliński, Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, and Xavier Sabata, with mezzosopranos Ann Hallenberg and Joyce DiDonato and with sopranos Lisette Oropesa, Emöke Barath and Francesca Aspromonte. Among the instrumental albums the recordings of Haydn's violin and harpsichord concertos as well as a cello album with Edgar Moreau received "Echo Klassik" Awards in 2016. Further instrumental recordings are dedicated to the violin concertos and the harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach, with Shunske Sato and Francesco Corti as soloists, and to virtuoso violin concertos with Dmitry Sinkonvsky.

In 2021 new albums with Bach harpsichord concertos vol.2 with Francesco Corti, Ombra Compagna with Lisette Oropesa (Mozart concert arias) and Jakub Józef Orliński (Anima Aeterna) were released. In 2022 seven albums have been published: Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with Kathryn Lewek (Soprano) and John Chest (Bass), Mandolin on stage with Raffaele La Ragione (Mandolin), the new recital with Joyce DiDonato, Eden, Bach Harpsichord Concertos vol III with Francesco Corti, Violin Concertos by Benda, Graun, Saint-Georges and Sirmen with Zefira Valova as soloist, Roma Travestita with Soprano Bruno de Sá, and Handel’s oratorio Theodora with a stellar cast (Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Michael Spyres, John Chest) – also introducing the new vocal ensemble of Il Pomo d‘Oro.

In 2022 Il Pomo d’Oro started a long-term recording project of Mozart-Symphonies and selected solo-concerts with Maxim Emelyanychev conducting.

The albums Anima Sacra with Jakub Józef Orliński, and Voglio Cantar with soprano Emöke Barath received the prestigious Opus-Klassik award, and the recording of G.F. Händel’s Serse, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, was awarded the Italian "Abbiato del Disco." In 2018, the recording of Alessandro Stradella’s opera La Doriclea, conducted by Andrea di Carlo, recieved the German "Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik." Virtuosissimo with Dmitry Sinkovsky, released in 2019, received a "Diapason d’Or." In 2022, Eden with Joyced DiDonato received a "Choc" from Classica and an "Opus Klassik."

Il Pomo d’Oro is official ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project to provide free musical education to children in Greek refugee camps. Il pomo d’oro plays charity concerts and offers workshops and music lessons according to the El Sistema method on a frequent regular basis in various refugee camps in Greece.

The name of the ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro refers to Antonio Cesti's opera from the year 1666. Composed to the wedding celebrations of Emperor Leopold I and Margarita Teresa of Spain, Il Pomo d'Oro was probably one of the largest, most expensive and most spectacular opera productions in the still young history of the genre. 24 different stage designs, a horse-ballet of 300 horses, a fireworks display of 73,000 rockets, numerous‚ special effects'- superlatives, which should make the Emperor's court the highlight of cultural splendor in Europe.

ilpomodoro.org

iSing Silicon Valley
Founded in 2013 by Jennah Delp Somers and Shane Troll, iSing Silicon Valley brings together more than 300 1st–12th grade singers in Silicon Valley, offers them rigorous musical and vocal training, and celebrates their exquisite singing in both live sold-out concerts and recorded performances. Applauded for the gorgeous vocal blend and joyful sound of our choirs, iSing has built a deeply committed musical community in the Bay Area—and has earned recognition on the national and international stages.

Dedicated to making exciting additions to the repertoire for treble voices, iSing marks our 10th anniversary season with our 30th commission. Among upcoming and recent world premieres: Where the Insects Cry (Santa Ratniece), Lux Aeterna (Sungji Hong), Chorea Lucis (Kenyon Duncan), and award-winning Never Shall I Forget (music Adam Schoenberg, words from Elie Wiesel’s Night). iSing has also enjoyed collaborations with renowned opera singers Angel Blue and Barbara Bonney, soprano Estelí Gomez, musical pioneer Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble, vocal ensemble Voces8, St. Lawrence String Quartet, and members of the SF Symphony and One Found Sound.

Through domestic and international travel, performance, competition, and a growing catalog of recordings, iSing is forming musical connections around the globe. Awards include the Chorus America, Dale Warland Singers Commission Award (2018) and the Grand Prize at the 8th International Robert Schumann Choral Competition (2018).

iSing can be heard on Here I Stand (Innova Recordings, 2020), featuring 200 singers, five iSing commissions, and other classic and contemporary works for treble voices; an iSing singer-led performance, rehearsed and recorded during pandemic isolation, of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s anthem to empowerment, So Quietly (Innova Recordings, 2021); iSing multimedia commission Drift, with music by Daniel Wohl and video by Maní Sigfússon (Amsterdam Records, 2022); and Love and Light, featuring two iSing commissions and other works from medieval to contemporary on themes of remembrance and hope (scheduled for release, Winter 2023)

Credits

Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-soprano/Executive Producer
Zefira Valova, Violin/Conductor
Il Pomo d’Oro  
Manuel Palazzo, Actor

Marie Lambert-Le Bihan, Stage Director
John Torres,  Lighting Designer 

Sophie Dand & Rachel Walters, EDEN Engagement Managers and Partnership Liaisons

Askonas Holt, Tour Management 
Colin Murphy, Production Manager
Zoe Morgan, Stage Manager
Valentin Bodier, LX Board Operator
Javi Castrillon, Set Technician

Set Created by Escenografia Moia
Sergi Galera Nebot, Technical Director
Joan Font, Design Consultant

Partners:
International Teaching Artists Collaborative
Botanical Gardens Conservation International

Seeds provided by GRUPO POSTA, containing chamomile

Choir: iSing Silicon Valley

“SEEDS OF HOPE”
Composed by the Children of the Canterbury Choir, Bishop Ramsey CE School, England, with Mike Roberts

Joyce DiDonato would like to graciously thank the following for their generous support of EDEN:

Sara Morgan
Franci Neely
John Studzinski
Ann Ziff

Helen Berggruen
McDermott Foundation

Linda Nelson
John Singer
Kern Wildenthal

Dame Janet Baker
Michael Beverly, DL
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon Foundation
Katherine G. Farley
Tom and Pamela Frame
Richard Gaddes
The Getty Foundation
Eva Haller
INSPIRATUM
David Jacobs
Eric Laub
Ellen Marcus
Sir Simon Robey

Joyce would like to thank the Hilti Foundation for their generous support of the EDEN Engagement programme.

EDEN has been commissioned by University Musical Society of the University of Michigan; the Harriman-Jewell Series, Kansas City; Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation; Cal Performances at University of California, Berkeley; Stanford Live; and UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures.