DVD

Cendrillon

Alice Coote
Ewa Podles
Eglise Guiterrez

Conductor: Bertrand de Billy
Director: Laurent Pelly

The Royal Opera House

2012

*Critics Choice* ~ Opera News November 2011

“[The] raison d’être is DiDonato’s touching, vocally ravishing Cendrillon, a piece of casting that gives Massenet’s romantic soufflé the artistic gravitas it needs.” ~ Financial Times

“The title role is taken by Joyce DiDonato in a performance teeming with star quality.  Massenet’s Cinders doesn’t have the coloratura fireworks that Rossini provides, but DiDonato excels at expressing sincerity, with rapt silver pianissimi aplenty.”  ~ Mark Pullinger International Record Review July 2012

2012

“Fraîche comme une rose, Joyce DiDonato trouve en Cendrillon un rôle à la mesure de sa musicalité infaillible et de son mezzo aux innombrables nuances, balayant tout l’arc-en-ciel des sentiments.” ~ Emmanuel Dupuy Diapason June 2012

“Joyce DiDonato tient le cap, jusqu’à la fin avec une finesse et une subtilité d’intonation qui laisse rêveur: couleurs diaphanes de ses pianissimi… La rossinienne habitée fait ici une très convaincante jeune femme, figure sensible mais aussi active, alliant rêve, réalité, accomplissement avec beaucoup de caractère et d’évidence.” ~ Classique News

© Ken Howard

“Pelly dispone di una compagnia affiatata e di alto livello, dove brilla Joyce DiDonato. Che ancora una volta si conferma artista di singolare fascino, per l’abilità di sposare la voce al personaggio e di piegare il suo strumento alle richieste stilistiche della partitura. Ha tutto per essere una Cendrillon perfetta, a cominciare dal timbro e dai colori che sono proprio quelli adatti a Lucette, appunto Cendrillon: un timbro luminoso, ma non sfacciato, di una femminilità elegante, ma non artefatta. C’è poi la musicista che sa assecondare con linea morbida e raffinata la mélodie massenetiana. Se si pensa alle sue strepitose affermazioni rossiniane non si può che rimanere stupiti dalla duttilità di questa cantatne decisamente fuori dal comune.”  ~ L’Opera

“Tout comme elle était évidemment la vedette de la version londonienne de ce spectacle, Joyce DiDonato constitue le principal argument de vente du DVD. Sa fréquentation de la Cenerentola rossinienne l’a familiarisée avec le personnage, qu’elle aborde avec une grande fraîcheur ; pour Cendrillon comme pour sa belle-mère, la pratique du répertoire belcantiste est des plus appréciables : leurs vocalises sont impeccablement exécutées, alors que ces passages peuvent mettre en difficulté des interprètes moins rompues à un style plus vocalisant.” ~ Opéra Forum

Predictably, [DiDonato's] radiant, but more than that she brings depth (but not baggage) to a part that can be knitted wholly out of spun sugar. It's hard not to think that her own story, from childhood in Prairie Village, Kansas (the simple truth) to becoming an uncontested favorite on the world's top opera stages, informs her feeling for the ill-treated step-daughter, whose long first scene, about being humble as a cricket, reaches right across the proscenium and out through your TV screen to grab you (not at all violently). It's the core humility and genuineness of feeling of her Cendrillon – by all accounts true reflections of this down-to-earth ensemble singer with a funny bone that makes her a natural for comedy – that makes her audience cheer her on.

Tim Pfaff, The Bay Area Reporter

Album info

Release date: May 22, 2012
Number of Discs: 2
Format: DVD
Label: Erato
ASIN: B007CYKHIW