Berlioz with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

For the first concert of her second season-long Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, Joyce DiDonato reunites with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Riccardo Muti for Berlioz’s riveting La mort de Cléopâtre. Ms. DiDonato performed this dramatic “scène lyrique” with the ensemble this past spring in Chicago, garnering critical praise for her performance:

“Berlioz’s music brings out the very best in DiDonato’s responsive instrument, and clearly inspired her interpretive instincts at their highest level. Her voice was bright and brilliant at the top of the range, with a formidable, chesty bite down below. The recitative was delivered with great reserves of bitterness and fear. There was a telling effect in the aria on “Il n’en est plus pour moi que l’éternelle nuit!” as the voice drained with despair. She beautifully denoted the exact moment of the asp’s strike, with a fining away of tone at the death. DiDonato’s performance was an extraordinary example of fully-drawn theatrical performance within a concert idiom.” (Opera News)

The performance will take place on November 15 at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The program will also feature Bizet’s orchestral suite, Roma, known as a tribute to the city, and Respighi’s fantastic tone poem Pines of Rome, which depicts pine trees in four locations of Rome at different times of the day. Before the new year, Ms. DiDonato returns to Carnegie Hall twice for her Perspectives series, including on November 22 for a program of Mozart arias with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and on December 15 with Mr. Nézet-Séguin at the piano for Schubert’s harrowing Winterreise. To learn more about her Perspectives series, click here.