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Background: 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.

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.”

The programme features several roles that DiDonato has sung on stage - such as Rossini's Cenerentola (it was the character's gentle, then exuberant 'Nacqui all'affanno' that launched her international career at Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition, and subsequently at La Scala), Bellini's Romeo and Mozart's Cherubino. The 'flip sides' of those characters are roles that have not featured in her repertoire: the Prince from Massenet's Cendrillon (a lavish treatment of the Cinderella story more likely to bring DiDonato in the title role - as at Santa Fe in 2006 and, in 2011, at Covent Garden); the Nurse from Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, and both Chérubin (from Massenet's 'sequel' to Le nozze di Figaro) and Susanna. The Figaro connection continues with an excerpt from Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina, of course, later becomes Countess Almaviva), while other operas on the programme, from the Renaissance to late Romanticism, include La clemenza di Tito (Sesto and Vitellia), Faust, La Damnation de Faust, Mefistofele, Orphée et Eurydice, Orfeo and Orphée aux Enfers. Accompanying Joyce DiDonato in this tour de force is the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Lyon under the company's Principal Conductor Kazushi Ono, another artist who successfully embraces an extraordinary diversity of musical idioms. As John von Rhein wrote in Gramophone: "In complete control vocally, Joyce DiDonato is … consumed by the character. She embodies whomever she's playing and whatever emotional situation she is evoking."

CATALOGUE NR: 6419860
RECORD LABEL: Virgin
FORMAT: CD
PRICE: including VAT £ 11.99
RELEASE DATE: 14-Feb-2011

COMPOSER: Jules Massenet  (other composers in brackets after works)
TITLE: Diva Divo
TRACKS: Cherubin : Je suis gris! Je suis ivre! (Massenet). Le Nozze di Figaro : Giunse alfin il omento… / Deh vieni non tardar (Mozart). La Clemenza di Tito : Se mai senti spirarti sul volto / Ecco il punto o Vitellia / Non piu di fiori / Voi che sapete (Mozart). Il Barbiere di Siviglia - The Barber of Seville : Contro un cor (Rossini). Faust : Faites-lui mes aveux. La Damnation de Faust Opus 24 : D'amour l'ardente flamme (Berlioz). Romeo et Juliette : Premiers transports que nul n'oublie (Gounod). I Capuleti e i Montecchi : Ascolta! Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio… La tremenda ultrice spada (Bellini). Cendrillon : Allez laissez-moi seul… Coeur sans amour printemps sans roses (Massenet). La Cenerentola : Nacqui all'affanno (Rossini). Ariane : O frele corps.... Chere Cypris (Martinu). Ariadne auf Naxos : Seien wir wieder gut! (Richard Strauss).
ORCHESTRA: Orchestre de l'Opera national de Lyon
CONDUCTOR: Kazushi Ono
ARTISTS: Joyce DiDonato      

- Apr-2011 5 star BBC Music Mag.

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