[caption id="attachment_5083" align="alignleft" width="240"] Guest Blogger[/caption] Written for the Huffington Post, Joyce writes about bringing "Drama Queens" to life: Standing on the stage in Bremen, Germany last week for the second stop of my Drama Queens Tour, I had just finished a nearly two-hour marathon of singing about jealousy, revenge, seduction, lust, despair and marching-off-to-sacrifice-myself-to-appease-those-angry-gods (you know how pesky they can be!). {…}

Crowned with a Grammy Award for her last album, Diva, Divo, Joyce DiDonato joins conductor Alan Curtis and Il complesso barocco for Drama Queens, an electrifying programme of royal arias from the 17th and 18th centuries, composed by figures as famous as Handel and Vivaldi and as little known as Orlandini and Porta. As DiDonato says: “High drama, profound emotion, {…}

We singers tend to boast that our careers offer the best form of psychotherapy in existence, for we are allowed to work out the bulk of our inner demons courtesy of the larger-than-life drama queens we encounter on the stage – those divine ladies who weep and love, moan and avenge more grandly and stylishly than in any other art {…}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUAn4798udcwmXfjOa6l4Ejw&v=ZHG1VsMW-no

The mezzo-soprano responds to Gramophone readers' questions following the release of her new album of Baroque royal arias, 'Drama Queens', on Virgin Classics A few weeks ago Gramophone gave its readers the opportunity to submit their own questions via Facebook and Twitter for acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who has recently released ‘Drama Queens’ with Il Complesso Barocco under conductor Alan Curtis - a disc of {…}

There are singers who are secure in technique but cautious in expression, there are singers who deliver passion but damage the ears, and then there is Joyce DiDonato, who consistently finds the golden mean." ~ Alex Ross New Yorker November 2012  _____ "DiDonato is in full fine form and throws her magnificent instrument into each of these pieces with a fury matched only {…}

  03/11/2012 Baden Baden Germany Festspielhaus Baden-Baden 05/11/2012 Bremen Germany Die Glocke Grosser Saal 07/11/2012 Berlin Germany Konzerthaus 09/11/2012 Hannover Germany Grosser NDR-Sendesaal 11/11/2012 Vienna Austria Theater an der Wien 13/11/2012 Essen Germany 16/11/2012 Kansas City, MO USA Folly Theatre 18/11/2012 New York, NY USA Carnegie Hall 20/11/2012 Sonoma, CA USA Green Music Center 02/02/2013 Lisbon Portugal Gulbenkian 04/02/2013 Brussels Belgium Palais des Beaux-Arts 06/02/2013 London UK Barbican Hall 08/02/2013 Paris France  Théâtre des Champs Elysées 10/02/2013 Essen Germany 28/02/2013 Valencia Spain 02/03/2013 Valladolid Spain 04/03/2013 Toulouse France 06/03/2013 Barcelona Spain 08/03/2013 Madrid Spain

Berenice, queen of Palestine 1          Da torbida procella Orlandini   6:05 Ifigenia, princess of Mycenae 2          Madre diletta, abbracciami Porta          7:39 Alcina, a sorceress 3          Ma quando tornerai Handel      4:09 Galsuinde, princess of Spain 4          Lasciami piangere Keiser          5:14 Cleopatra, queen of Egypt 5          Morte col fiero aspetto Hasse  4:09 6          Piangerò la sorte mia Handel   6:45 Orontea, queen of Egypt 7          Intorno all’idol mio Cesti         6:55 Rossane, a Persian princess 8          Brilla nell’alma {…}