In War & Peace

2019-01-08

Venue: Concert Hall

Dates: January 11, 2019

About

Credits

Joyce DiDonato: Mezzo-soprano & Executive producer

Il Pomo d’Oro

Maxim Emelyanychev: Director & Harpsichord

Manuel Palazzo: Choreographer & Dancer

Ralf Pleger: Stage Director

Henning Blum: Lighting designer

Yousef Iskandar: Video designer

Anna Fusek: Solo Flute

Tour Management: Askonas Holt

Greeting Cards: Hallmark

Joyce DiDonato’s Gowns: Vivienne Westwood

Manuel Palazzo's Costume: Lasha Rostobaia

Makeup by M.A.C.

Programme

Handel

Scenes of Horror, Scenes of Woe (Storgè) from Jephtha (1752)

Leo

Prendi Quel Ferro, o Barbaro! (Andromaca) from Andromaca (1742)

De Cavalieri

Sinfonia Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo (Instrumental)

Purcell

Ciaconna in sol min for 3 Violins and Basso (Instrumental)

Purcell

Dido’s Lament (Dido) from Dido and Aeneas (1689)

Handel

Pensieri, Voi mi Tormentate (Agrippina) from Agrippina (1709)

Gesualdo

Tristis est Anima Mea (Instrumental)

Handel

Lascia Ch'io Pianga (Almirena) from Rinaldo (1711)

——Intermission——

Purcell

They Tell Us that You Mighty Powers (Orazia)

Handel

Crystal Streams in Murmurs Flowing (Susanna)

Arvo Pärt

Da Pacem, Domine

Handel

Augelletti, Che Cantate (Almirena)

Handel

Dopo Notte (Ariodante)

Creative

Maxim Emelyanychev

Director and Harpsichord

Manuel Palazzo

Choreographer and Dancer

Ralf Pleger

Stage Director

Henning Blum

Lighting Designer

Yousef Iskandar

Video Designer

Artist

Joyce DiDonato Mezzo-Soprano and Executive Producer

“The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time- but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.” - Jake Heggie, Gramophone

Multi Grammy Award winner of the 2016 Best Classical Solo Vocal Album Joyce and Tony: Live at Wigmore Hall and the 2012 Best Classical Vocal Solo, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by the New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to the Times, Joyce has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her wide-ranging, acclaimed discography. She is also widely acclaimed for the bel canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti - the Financial Times judging her recent performances as Elena La donna del Lago as “simply the best singing I've heard in years”.

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, she has recently held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Recent highlights in opera have included her first Semiramide in a new production at the Bavarian State Opera, her first Didon Les Troyens under John Nelsons, her first Charlotte Werther for The Royal Opera under Sir Antonio Pappano, the title role in Maria Stuarda at the Metropolitan Opera, for The Royal Opera and at the Liceu in Barcelona; as well as the title role in Ariodante on tour with the English Concert and Harry Bicket.

Opera highlights in Joyce’s 2017/18 season include Cendrillon and her first Adalgisa Norma for the Metropolitan Opera, a return to the Royal Opera House as Semiramide under Sir Antonio Pappano, and the role of Sister Helen in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and in a staged performance at the Barbican Centre with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In concert, Joyce will join the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra under Michael Stern. She will also tour throughout Europe with Il Pomo d’Oro performing In War & Peace and give recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall with the Brentano Quartet and at the Royal Opera House with Pappano accompanying.

An exclusive recording artist with Erato/Warner Classics, Joyce’s most recent release In War & Peace won the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award. Other recordings include Stella di Napoli, a sumptuous bel canto banquet including little-known gems alongside music by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti. Her Grammy-Award-winning recording Diva Divo comprises arias by male and female characters, celebrating the rich dramatic world of the mezzo-soprano. The following recording Drama Queens was exceptionally well received, both on disc and on several international tours. A retrospective of her first ten years of recordings entitled ReJoyce! was released in 2013. Other honours include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and Recital of the Year awards, four German Echo Klassik Awards as Female Singer of the Year, and an induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.

Presenter

Il pomo d'oro

Il pomo d'oro is an orchestra founded in the year 2012 with a special focus on opera, but equally committed to instrumental performance in various formations. The musicians united in this group are among the best to be found worldwide for authentic and vivid interpretation on period instruments. Together with the young chief conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, they form ed an ensemble of outstanding quality, combining stylistic knowledge, the highest technical skills, and artistic enthusiasm. The collaboration with violinist and conductor Riccardo Minasi led to an award winning first recording (Vivaldi, Per l’Imperatore). The second recording, Vivaldi’s violin concertos Per Pisendel with Dmitry Sinkovsky as soloist and conductor, received a Diapason d’Or. In 2012, Il pomo d'oro also recorded three solo CDs with three countertenors – Max Emanuel Cencic (Venezia), Xavier Sabata (Bad Guys) and Franco Fagioli (Arias for Caffarelli), under Riccardo Minasi’s direction. The album Arias for Caffarelli was awarded the Choc de l’annee 2013 by the French magazine Classica. A further contribution to the Naive-Vivaldi-Edition was a recording of the Concerti per due violini, played and directed by Riccardo Minasi and Dmitry Sinkovsky, released in October 2013. In conjunction with a book project about the Venetian Gondola by American writer Donna Leon, Il pomo d'oro recorded a collection of ancient Venetian Barcarole, sung by Vincenzo Capezzuto. A recital of various Agrippina Arias – most of them world premieres on CD – with the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, directed by Riccardo Minasi, was released in 2015. Agrippina won the International Classic Music Award and the International Opera Award. A second album with Max Emanuel Cencic, Arie Napoletane (directed by Maxim Emelyanychev, was released in November 2015. It includes many world premiere recordings of the still to be rediscovered Neapolitan repertoire. In 2016, Il pomo d'oro recorded its first recital with the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, In War & Peace, released in November 2016, followed by a concert tour in Europe and the U.S., conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev. For this album, Joyce DiDonato was awarded the Echo Klassik for "Singerof the year 2017". A second recital with Ann Hallenberg was recorded in the fall 2016, presenting Greatest Hits from the Venetian Carnevale 1729 – Il pomo d'oro’s first recording under the direction of Stefano Montanari. The recording season 2016 closed with a first collaboration with Enrico Onofri and the young Italian soprano Francesca Aspromonte. In March 2017, Il pomo d'oro, led by Zefira Valova, recorded a new recital of Handel-Arias with countertenor Franco Fagioli.

In November 2017, Il pomo d'oro gave a series of concerts with the young Russian violin virtuoso Alina Ibragimova playing a classical and romantic programme.

Il pomo d'oro so far recorded five complete operas: Handel’s Tamerlano, Catone in Utica by Leonardo Vinci, – awarded with an Echo Klassik 2016 – Handel’s Partenope (all directed by Riccardo Minasi), and Handel’s Ottone (directed by George Petrou). Among the singers are to be heard Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata and Karina Gauvin. In 2017, the opera La Doriclea by Alessandro Stradella was recorded under the direction of Andrea de Carlo and was a world first release of this opera in 2018.

Another Handel-opera recording under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev with a stellar cast concluded the recording year 2017.

Further instrumental recordings include Haydn’s concerts for harpsichord and violin, co-directed by Maxim Emelanychev as harpsichord-soloist and Riccardo Minasi as violin-soloist (to be released in early 2016), and a violoncello recital with Edgar Moreau with works by Haydn, Boccherini, Platti, Graziani, Vivaldi, which was released in November 2015. Both recordings won the Echo Klassik Award 2016. A new recording with violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky explores the repertoire of the Virtuosissimi of the baroque violin, such as Locatelli, Tartini, Leclair, Pisendel, and others.

Il pomo d'oro is a frequent guest in the most important concert venues in Europe and the United States, such as Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Theater an der Wien, Barbican Center, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall (2017), Philharmonie Berlin (2017), Herkulessaal München, and many more.

In 2016, Il pomo d'oro became ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project to fight the loss of home and identity by offering musical education and encourage own musical activity, to bring concerts, to create cultural transfer by exchanging musical traditions and to help integration by combining musical and language education. Il pomo d’oro plays concerts and offers workshops and music lessons according to the El Sistema method on a frequent regular basis in various refugee camps in Greece.

eBeijing