Enchanting at the Met this weekend!

Joyce DiDonato

The Enchanted Island received its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera (heard Saturdays at noon on KPAC & KTXI) on New Year’s Eve and runs through the end of this month. It is a pastiche: creative use of leftovers, a "Franken-opera" formed from other operas by Vivaldi & Handel. It stars Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels and Plácido Domingo.

The live HD screening of The Enchanted Island is this Saturday January 21st (locally seen at Cielo Vista 18, Fiesta 16 Theatres, & Cinemark McCreeless Mall) at 11:55am. Joyce DiDonato, Sycorax, is joined by Luca Pisaroni who plays her son, Caliban, to answer a few questions from a class in Utah:

Here is the trailer for The Enchanted Island:
And from the second act of The Enchanted Island with Joyce:

Best of 2011

Here are ten of our favorite interviews from 2011 on Classical Spotlight:

John and Joyce in Houston, TX.

Janine Jansen on Beau Soir

Sharon Isbin on Guitar Passions

Dmitry Sitkovetsky on Haffner

Joyce DiDonato on Divo/Diva

Ruth Moreland on Sacred Tranquility

David Kim on Redeemer Fine Arts

Marguerite McCormick on Spring Song

Sebastian Lang Lessing on Liszt

Angèle Dubeau on Portrait

Itzahk Perlman on his Recital

An opening night at La Scala & San Antonio

by John Clare

Saturday night begins a run of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier through October 20th at La Scala. Philippe Jordan leads a cast that includes Marcelo Álvarez, Anne Schwanewilms, Peter Rose, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen and an old friend Joyce DiDonato.

Joyce blogs, vlogs and keeps fans up to date on Facebook - she even skype'd recently with students in Louisiana. She'll perform the role of Octavian...and took this shot at a rehearsal:
We were both at Wichita State University, and in between music history and opera, would ham it up in the lobby and at "Silly Concerts", so it is easy to see Joyce having some fun - not in Duerksen Fine Arts Center but on one of the world's great stages. It was fun seeing her last spring in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and she'll return to Houston next spring for Donizetti's Maria Stuarda.

Tomorrow night locally you can experience opera on stage with Romeo and Juliet, presented by San Antonio Opera. Inspired by Shakespeare and an overwhelming fan favorite since its Paris premiere, Charles Gounod's opera delivers a timeless tale of love, loyalty, romance and revenge, as it underscores the power of passion to heal the deepest, darkest divides. Never in the history of romance were two lovers more star, crossed than Shakespeare's passionate Romeo and Juliet. This universal story has been adapted in countless plays and films, in popular culture and in dance, but perhaps no medium better expresses the love, longing and ultimate tragedy of this fated pair than Gounod's sweeping and supreme opera. Replete with ecstatic French melodies, this heartbreakingly beautiful production opene the San Antonio opera's 2011/2012 season!

Classical Spotlight: DiDonato

Mezzo Soprano Joyce DiDonato appears in the HGO production of Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie starting Saturday! Joyce also has a new cd coming out on January 25th, Diva Divo. An old college friend of host John Clare, DiDonato met up him recently to talk about the opera and new release.
Their interview is here (mp3 file).

Clare & DiDonato

Sample the new cd until January 24th here on NPRMusic.
There are also some great videos about her new cd Diva Divo here:

Check out John's interview with composer Jake Heggie here:

Houston, we have a performer

Joyce DiDonato just finished up in Europe and is coming to Houston in January to perform in Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie.
She just posted some wonderful videos showing how things work behind the scenes for her...it's both brilliant and sweet, enjoy:



Check out Part two as well here!

Sizzlin' Opera

A new cookbook is out, Die Oper Kocht (World stars at the stove: The favorite recipes of great voices) that features all sorts of recipes from Angelika Kirchschlager and Jose Carreras to Vesselina Kasarova and Thomas Hampson!
Pictured left is the spicy mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato who shares a recipe for cinnamon rolls!






The "making of" video is a real hoot - using Bazzini's Dance of the Elves:

They also have a facebook like, and the cookbook itself is on Germany's Amazon store.

Added drama!

Do you remember earlier this summer when mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato broke her leg during an opera?
Opera lovers at Glyndebourne were treated to rather more drama than they anticipated when soprano Ana Maria Martinez fell offstage into the orchestra pit! Read about it here.
And poor Joyce had the lights shut off during a concert in Scotland!

See and hear some drama on stage in San Antonio with Madama Butterfly next month...we hope no one is injured and the lights stay on!

Free Sample

Take Joyce DiDonato's new Handel cd for a spin. Click here to get a free download of Furore. And keep an eye out for our interview with Joyce about the new disc.
Remember when we told you about the album with this video?

Opera Fury

She's been taking the opera world by storm, from the Met to La Scala, and from Carnegie Hall to Wigmore Hall, Joyce DiDonato is one of the world's great singers and performers. She also makes time to share thoughts and photos on her blog, YankeeDiva.
This January she'll release a new cd, Furore, with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques on Virgin Classics, take a sneak peak:

And tune in for Thursday night at the Opera, with host Ron Moore at 8 pm for the romantic and passionate Werther by Jules Massenet on KPAC and KTXI.