The great Joyce DiDonato brings her Eden to Latvia
The Baltic TimesOn June 20, one of the greatest singers in the history of classical music, Joyce DiDonato, will take the stage at Dzintari. Jurmala is included in the world tour of the American diva: her theatrical program “Eden” has already been performed in such cult halls as Carnegie Hall in New York, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Barbican Hall in London, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Megaron in Athens, Teatro Real in Madrid. Together with Joyce, the Italian orchestra “Il Pomo d’Oro” will arrive, and in Latvia a large children’s choir will join the star’s performance. Never before has our country hosted such a large-scale tour of opera celebrities.
Joyce DiDonato: this name has been shining over the musical horizon for twenty years with an incredibly bright and joyful light. The New York Times calls DiDonato’s voice “gold of the highest standard”.
A three-time winner of the most important awards in the field of classical music – Grammy Award, ECHO Klassik Award and Gramophone Award, the owner of the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for excellence and dozens of other prizes and honorary titles, Joyce DiDonato enjoys endless love from the public and respect from critics around the world. Her mezzo-soprano is impeccable, her acting talent is amazing.
“Joyce Didonato is one of the most perfect singers in history,” says BBC Music; the list of prima donna roles fully confirms this. It is unlikely that there will be a second performer on the opera stage who, like Joyce, is equally good at early music, Bel Canto repertoire, romantic and modern compositions. Nevertheless, Didonato is capable of more: in the program “Eden”, nominated for the Grammy Award, she makes a vertiginous journey in one evening from Henry Purcell to Charles Ives, from George Frideric Handel to Gustav Mahler, from Richard Wagner to Rachel Portman.
During her brilliant career, Joyce DiDonato sang 39 main parts. In six cases, there were the world premieres – this alone is enough to enter the history of music.
Fifteen studio recordings featuring Joyce have been released by Argo Records, Albany Records, Ondine, Naxos Records, Virgin Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato Records/Warner Classics.
As well as five albums of symphonic music, where DiDonato performs vocal parts.
In addition, fifteen solo albums.
And just as many DVD recordings – including The Barber of Seville from London’s Covent Garden: then, on July 7, 2009, during the broadcast, Joyce slipped on stage and broke her leg – but did not interrupt the performance, she ended it on crutches. Moreover, later the singer spent all the entire planned series of plays in a wheelchair, with a pink bandage on a plaster cast …
Such is Joyce’s courage and inner freedom that in 2016, she – undoubtedly one of the best singers in the world – decided to play the worst singer in the world in Ralph Pleger’s film ” Florence Foster Jenkins.”
Without moralizing and pathos, exclusively by artistic means – with the help of her beautiful voice and great music – Joyce DiDonato speaks to her listener on themes that excite her. In her Garden of Eden, in her Eden, it is about the beauty and fragility of our world: “To save our planet, it is not enough just to tick the box “reduction carbon emissions”. The only way is to change people’s hearts.”
“Eden” brings these changes, creating a living garden of magical arias and diving into the hearts,
breaking out of the borders of the concert hall. In every country that Joyce visits during the tour, the great singer meets with music teachers and students, she herself gives master classes, invites international speakers and takes the children with her on stage – she, after all, herself started the path to the heights of the musical Olympus from the school choir. For Joyce, this is of utmost importance: to sow the seeds of a beautiful future.
Latvia responded to the call of the diva with all her heart. The largest children’s choir in the history of “Eden” – 200 students of Riga School No. 6, which pays special attention to music – together with Joyce DiDonato will perform the final songs of the project in “Dzintari”.
The organizer of the tour is the production company of Eugene Wintour Winstag Production, OU. Tickets at city ticket offices and bilesuparadize.lv network.
The concert is supported by ZUNDA TOWERS and Maserati Riga.