Joyce DiDonato: 10 unmissable recordings
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Shortlisted for a 2022 Gramophone Award for 'EDEN', DiDonato is one of the leading mezzos of our time
EDEN
Joyce DiDonato mez Il Pomo d'Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev (Erato)
Shortlisted for the Gramophone Voice & Ensemble Award 2022
Editor's Choice – March 2022
‘I’m brought to tearful wonder by the album’s close. DiDonato’s farewell, ‘Ombra mai fù’ from Handel’s Serse, is a performance so beautiful that it makes your insides ache.’
Berlioz Les Troyens
Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Orchestre et Choeur philharmonique de Strasbourg, Badischer Staatsopernchor, Choeur de l’Opéra du Rhin / John Nelson (Erato)
Gramophone's Recording of the Year and Opera Award winner 2018
Recording of the Month – December 2017
‘Joyce DiDonato’s noble Didon, her lighter, brighter mezzo providing a nice contrast to Lemieux’s Cassandre. Her distinctive flutter at the top may not be to everyone’s taste but her performance – another role debut – is remarkably assured, full of tender ecstasy in the duet ‘Nuit d’ivresse’ with Spyres, and blending sumptuously with Hanna Hipp’s sympathetic Anna. DiDonato’s vehement response to Énée’s desertion reveals her as a great tragedienne.’
In War & Peace
Joyce DiDonato mez Il Pomo d'Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev (Erato)
Gramophone Recital Award 2017
Editor's Choice – November 2016
‘Roaming freely between alto and soprano roles, DiDonato once again demonstrates the flexibility of a voice capable of finding both the innocent simplicity of an Almirena and the mature emotions of Dido or Monteverdi’s Penelope – ‘Illustratevi o cieli’, the queen’s long-delayed release into aria, radiates hard-won contentment.’
Handel Agrippina
Joyce DiDonato, Elsa Benoit, Luca Pisaroni, Franco Fagioli, Jakub Józef Orliński, Andrea Mastroni, Carlo Vistoli, Biagio Pizzuti, Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Il Pomo d'Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev (Erato)
Gramophone's Opera Award 2020
Editor's Choice – March 2020
‘As at Covent Garden, DiDonato effortlessly dominates proceedings with her mix of hauteur, sensuous beauty of tone and acute, specific characterisation. Double-speak is her default setting; and even at her most ingratiating, as in her blithe aria to Poppea ‘Non hò cor’, DiDonato never lets you forget that here is one of the most ruthlessly manipulative women in Roman history (and there is plenty of competition).’
Rossini Colbran, the Muse
Joyce DiDonato mez Lawrence Brownlee ten Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Edoardo Müller (Erato)
Gramophone Recital Award 2010
Editor's Choice – December 2009
‘DiDonato is proving herself one of the most delightful artists of our time. She sings with a rare purity of tone, ease on the high Bs, an impressive degree of technical skill and lively powers of characterisation. She is invigoratingly precise in her placement, fluent in scale work and well furnished with staccati and trills.’
Rossini Stabat Mater
Anna Netrebko sop Joyce DiDonato mez Lawrence Brownlee ten Ildebrando D'Arcangelo bass Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano (Warner Classics)
Gramophone Editor's Choice Award 2011
Recording of the Monthe – January 2011
‘The pairing of Anna Netrebko and Joyce DiDonato is a marriage made in musical heaven. The range demanded of the second soprano holds no terrors for DiDonato.’
Joyce & Tony
Joyce DiDonato mez Antonio Pappano pf (Erato)
‘DiDonato’s voice has an expecially attractive plaintive quality, her small, quick vibrato recalling Frederica von Stade’s prime.’
Heggie Great Scott
Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Anthony Roth Costanzo; Orchestra and Chorus of The Dallas Opera / Patrick Summers (Erato)
Editor's Choice – February 2018
‘Heggie gets to spoof the sub-Rossinian bel canto on an elaborate scale (up to and including those celebrated crescendos) but in so doing manages to transcend mere pastiche in the creation of genuinely elegant and beautiful lines and authentic vocal fireworks that challenge and tax DiDonato as surely as the roles in her core repertoire. The operatic set pieces here truly have a ring of authenticity about them.’
Amor e gelosia
Patrizia Ciofi sop Joyce DiDonato mez Il Complesso Barocco / Alan Curtis (Erato)
Editor's Choice – October 2004
‘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.’
Stella di Napoli
Joyce DiDonato mez Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon / Riccardo Minasi (Erato)
Editor's Choice – November 2014
‘The finale of Zelmira provides DiDonato with the opportunity of showing off her brilliantly executed coloratura, while her mezza voce at the start of Romeo’s farewell to the supposedly dead Juliet in Bellini’s opera is sustained to perfection.’
