Dido and Æneas
Financial Times“This new recording has a star in Joyce DiDonato and, for all that the performance as a whole is of high standard, she dominates the proceedings wherever she appears… Dido’s lament, the opera’s most celebrated number, is sung with a concentration that grips in every phrase.”
“DiDonato est magnifique d’introspection, de legato, de nuances, filant les longues lignes de cette cantilène, où la mélodie semble errer sur une basse imperturbable, puis explose comme en un cri sur « yet would », avant que les reprises de la phrase ne s’allègent chaque fois davantage, la voix se faisant diaphane, jusqu’à une fin morendo, où l’ensemble des cordes vient la soutenir. Un air qui est tout entier prémonition de son lamento final.”
[DiDonato is magnificent in her introspection, legato and nuances, spinning out the long lines of this cantilena, where the melody seems to wander over an imperturbable bass, then explodes as if in a cry on “yet would”, before the repetition of the phrase becomes lighter each time, the voice becoming diaphanous, until a morendo ending, where the strings as a whole support her. An aria that is a premonition of her final lamento.]
“…DiDonato’s interpretation goes beyond those two readings, charting the Dido’s emotional upheaval with unerring mastery. Her astonishing vocal prowess (in which the voice is never ‘scaled back’ to fit an idealized Baroque sound) dispatches every technical hurdle with ease, focusing our attention on the unfolding emotional tragedy. ”