Handel’s Theodora at Teatro Real de Madrid

Joyce DiDonato returns to the Teatro Real this month, reprising the role of Irene in Handel’s Theodora. The production is on stage November 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, and 23; the November 17 performance will be live-streamed on MyOpera Player.

Joyce performs under the baton of Ivor Bolton, alongside Julia Bullock and Iestyn Davies in a production by Katie Mitchell, which originally premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2022. Of her then-performance, Claire Seymour for Opera Today said,“In all of Irene’s arias, Joyce DiDonato brings both humanity and musical sincerity to the foreground, through her varied tone colour, sensitive ornamentation and because her musical authority is such that we are drawn, no compelled, to listen to the music.”

A full recording of Theodora, also featuring Lisette Oropesa, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Michael Spyres and John Chest, and Il Pomo d’Oro conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, is available from Warner Classics.