The South Bank Show: Joyce DiDonato, Sky Arts

The Arts Desk
by Marina Vaizey
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Take Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, and add Handel and Mozart and the Frenchman Massenet, and you have the composers whose operas the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has made her own. She’s one of the few who has become a classic opera diva while remaining true to her roots (she was born in Prairie Village, Kansas, and one of her all-time favourite songs is “Over the Rainbow”: remember Dorothy was a Kansas girl too.)

Melvyn Bragg’s empathetic interview, conducted in the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera House, was a real treat. Question and answer was interspersed with clips of performances and rehearsals, from the Dallas and Houston Operas to the Met, San Francisco and the Verbier Festival, ending with fireworks engulfing the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day 2015,when DiDonato sang to a worldwide audience of 20 million.

See the entire feature at The Arts Desk & watch the interview at SkyArts