Berlioz: 'Les Troyens' recording wins 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Opera

Nominated in the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Awards, Erato’s album of Berlioz’s Les Troyens featuring Joyce DiDonato as Didon has won the opera category for award-winning record. The Gramophone Classical Music Awards ceremony will take place on September 13.

Released in 2017, this complete and uncut score of Les Troyens is drawn from two concert performances that were described as “the musical event of the year” in the city of Strasbourg. John Nelson, unrivalled in his authority in this mighty work, conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and a cast led by Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Cassandre, Joyce DiDonato as Didon, Michael Spyres as Énée, and Stéphane Degout as Chorèbe. Additional information on this album, including links to purchase online, is available via Joyce’s Recordings.

Since its release, Ms. DiDonato has received critical acclaim for her performance of this noble character:

“Joyce DiDonato is Didon. Her probity as an artist informs the character, and her serious approach suggests the queen’s aristocratic nature. But her portrayal is also distinguished by its emotional transparency, her quick vibrato indicating the beating heart beneath the regal exterior. The dignity of DiDonato’s approach in Acts III and IV makes Didon’s disintegration in Act V all the more shocking; when she lashes out in searing rage at Aeneas, it registers as a cataclysmic fall from grace. DiDonato has long been one of opera’s most winning performers, but here she shows herself an epic tragedienne.” (Opera News)

“Joyce DiDonato is by turns fiery and sensuous as the legendary Carthaginian queen, the silvery top of her voice adding an unusual vulnerability.” (The Financial Times)

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