{"id":64951,"date":"2013-06-07T18:34:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T16:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=64951"},"modified":"2016-12-16T04:06:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T03:06:19","slug":"joyce-didonato-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/joyce-didonato-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Joyce DiDonato interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having known the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato <\/strong>since the beginning of her international career, I\u2019m still somewhat surprised by her superstardom \u2014 not least because she is fundamentally unchanged, still very much the down-to-earth, openhearted, intelligent, and resiliently good-humored woman she always was. Perhaps the only real change is that now everybody else knows this about her, too: especially through social media and her website (www.joycedidonato.com), she regularly shares the challenges and the joys of the adventure on which she\u2019s embarked.
\nShe takes nothing for granted, not her success and most certainly not her work. Her intellectual curiosity has led her into all kinds of repertoire, including a great deal of contemporary music, notably including that by the American composer Jake Heggie. But for this listener, her greatest success has been in Baroque and bel canto works. Not content to exploit the music as a showcase for her considerable technical gifts, she digs deeply into her interpretations, discovering dramatic and psychological nuances that few if any other artists have ever matched and that, as I say, the composers themselves may not have suspected.
\nHaving enjoyed a triumph this winter in the title role in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti\u2019s Maria Stuarda<\/em>, Joyce is one of the busiest and most sought-after singers in opera today. When we caught up by telephone, she was appearing in John Fulljames\u2019 new production of Rossini\u2019s La Donna del Lago<\/em> with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, London \u2014 while also preparing (with the help of her fans) a commemorative CD marking her ten years with Virgin\/EMI; singing a recital in Zurich; interviewing Dame Janet Baker; and advising younger singers in a series of video blogs for her website. This summer, she returns to La Scala for a recital with David Zobel (9 June) and to Santa Fe Opera, in yet another new production of La Donna del Lago<\/em>, directed by Paul Curran (13, 17, 26 July; 1, 6, 14 August).
\n<\/strong>What\u2019s on the program for your solo recital at La Scala on 9 June? <\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s my Venice program, so I hope there are no terrible city rivalries that I\u2019m unaware of between Milan and Venice! There is a line that I sing that \u201cVenice is the most beautiful city in the world,\u201d so I hope the Milanese don\u2019t take offense. Venice has really inspired so many artists, composers and writers, painters and photographers. I\u2019ve been able to select a program that ticks all of my boxes as a singer, from Baroque to Rossini to twentieth-century music. Coloratura music as well as the more lush, arching \u2014 as well as a bit of humor. In the Hahn pieces there\u2019s a lot of humor. We start with Vivaldi, a couple of airs from Ercole<\/em>, and Faur\u00e9 Chansons de Venise<\/em>. Then there\u2019s the Regata Veneziana<\/em>.\u00a0 I come back with a sneaky aria that\u2019s really a song within an opera, from Rossini\u2019s Otello<\/em>. I\u2019m sneaking in an opera aria, but she\u2019s really singing the song of the willow. I do three songs by Michael Head that are amazing, in English, written for Janet Baker. They\u2019re very evocative and I love them. They\u2019re about the undercurrent of Venice that is not the tourist\u2019s Venice. And then we end with Reynaldo Hahn, the Venezia<\/em>.
\nIn a way, this feels to me like another rite of passage. Are there many more peaks to scale that are quite this important to your career? <\/strong>
\nOh, my gosh. That\u2019s a good question. It will actually be my second recital. I did the first one, I\u2019m not going to remember the year, but a solid four or five years ago. But I think this one will have a different weight, because I have been able to show different sides of myself to that audience. Before they only knew me as Cenerentola and now they know me as Octavian and some serious Rossini. So I\u2019m really excited to come back now that they know more sides to me.\u00a0 I keep thinking that, \u201cWow, I\u2019ve reached something exciting here,\u201d and then it turns out there\u2019s something else just beyond the horizon. I want to say, \u201cWait wait wait, how is this possible?\u201d Once you\u2019ve sung at La Scala, there\u2019s still a new role to sing. If I were to go and sing Bellini there, that would be a very different rite of passage in that theater. I think I\u2019m never done with the growth. Some mountains will be 14,000 feet rather than 12,000 feet. But I don\u2019t know I\u2019m sort of savoring it all.
\nI think one reason that audiences find it so easy to enjoy your experiences is that you enjoy them so much. You\u2019re never blas\u00e9. <\/strong>
\nNever! [Laughs] How can you be? I just can\u2019t be. Maybe there will come a day when I am, and then it will probably be time for me to say goodbye. But it\u2019s like I\u2019m in a living museum with great masterpieces around me. And how can you possibly be blas\u00e9 about that? I\u2019m loving it and having an amazing time.
\nTell us about your accompanist, David Zobel. You\u2019ve worked closely with him for quite a long time. <\/strong>
\nWe first met in 1997, and we were in the Merola Program [for young artists, at San Francisco Opera]. This is a good story, because I was scheduled to sing my first Angelina at that time, Cinderella <\/em>in English. I was kind of nervous. The first day we had a sing-through, and this cute little French guy came up to me. He was playing the piano, and he came up and said, [using a French accent] \u201cExcuse me you do not know me, I am David Zobel.\u201d He was studying at Juilliard at the time. He was a huge Rossini fan. He said, \u201cI came here thinking how are they going to find a young artist who can sing this music, and I am here to tell you they have found her. You are amazing.\u201d That was the first musical read-through, and we have been friends ever since. Go figure.\u00a0 We kept in touch for a few years and then he went back to Paris. In 2002 I had the chance to record my first album in France, The Deepest Desire<\/em>, and he was the only pianist I knew in Paris. I called and asked him would you like to do this, and he practically cried, \u201cI\u2019d love to.\u201d We\u2019ve been together ever since, and it\u2019s a wonderful partnership.
\nYou\u2019ve now sung Elena in La Donna del Lago<\/em> in several cities and several productions. It used to be a rarity, and now it\u2019s practically a staple of your rep. What about this role appeals to you?<\/strong>
\nIn a musical aspect, it feels as if Rossini and I were meeting daily and he was just penning this for my voice. [Laughs] I don\u2019t mean to sound immodest with that, but it\u2019s truly \u2014 and Rosina and Cenerentola \u2014 these are roles that fit me incredibly well. Elena is a slightly more grownup role, so she\u2019s like the perfect successor to the girls of Rosina and Angelina So vocally it\u2019s a tremendous fit for me, so it\u2019s tremendously gratifying for me to sing.\u00a0 But there\u2019s also this tremendous element \u2014 I know it\u2019s a wacky, convoluted opera at times, but the thing I love is that from the beginning she\u2019s constantly talking about peace. At the end, she talks about \u201cla bella pace,\u201d which is why she can have her \u201cfelicit\u00e0,\u201d in the fireworks at the end, but only when she has found peace. That\u2019s a message that I like.
\nAnd it\u2019s another Colbran role. <\/strong>
\nExactly!
\nI recently heard the new music-theater piece Far from Heaven, and was impressed by how well the composer, Scott Frankel, had tailored the score to showcase the leading actress, Kelli O\u2019Hara. I get the same feeling when I\u2019m listening to you sing Rossini. <\/strong>
\nWe also get a little bit of leeway so that we can ornament so we can customize a little bit. I know Juan Diego Florez feels the same way. When you find that kind of marriage between composer and singer, it\u2019s something really special, because your voice is given the chance to shine at its brightest.
\nYou also find a psychological depth and dramatic resonance in his music that I\u2019m not sure he would have realized was possible. It\u2019s as if you\u2019re his response to Wagner\u2019s criticism of him. <\/strong>
\nI was talking about that with Juan Diego actually, we were saying about how in this staging we\u2019ve been able to find a lot more depth and a lot more layers to this. Juan Diego and I were like, \u201cIt\u2019s actually there.\u201d It is there. Maybe it wasn\u2019t intentional, maybe it just flowed through Rossini. That\u2019s what \u2018s interesting, we\u2019re not imposing anything on it, we are perhaps shining a spotlight on it and looking at it in a different way. But we\u2019re in a psychologically different generation, we\u2019ve had the benefit of psychoanalysis and advances in the study of the mind, and we have a different way of looking at things. I think it\u2019s a real testament to this brilliant composer that all these years later we can still find this kind of depth. I think that\u2019s really exciting.
\nWhat are the challenges of the role? How has your interpretation changed? <\/strong>
\nWell I didn\u2019t have a chance for a lot of psychological growth in the Paris\/Milan production. It\u2019s universally known that those were pretty terrible. But working with Christoph Loy really taught me a lot. Have you seen the movie Breaking the Waves? Directed by Lars von Trier, with Emily Watson. It\u2019s shattering, but ultimately uplifting at the end. He based Elena on this character played by Emily Watson, so it was a hugely psychological journey. A lot of that work with Christoph came from that movie, and now I have the chance to put that back in[to this production].\u00a0 It\u2019s a terrifying score, incredibly difficult. But the more you navigate thorough it the more confidence you have. I\u2019ve been able to keep adding layers and confidence. I enjoyed it from the beginning, but it\u2019s grown.
\nMany of our readers have never been to Santa Fe. Why is performing there so especially meaningful to American singers? <\/strong>
\n[Trills] In particular it\u2019s very meaningful to me because I did my first really important apprenticeship in 1995. That was a real breakout, and it was the first time I was actually participating in a professional opera company, so my world was just exploding for me. I had been at A.V.A. [the American Vocal Academy, in Philadelphia], but never sung professionally. I\u2019ve been going back, I don\u2019t know how many years, but it feels like my summer home.\u00a0 There\u2019s something very magical about the atmosphere in Santa Fe. Everybody is relaxed and in a good mood. The pace is relaxed, so we can go to the pool and enjoy ourselves when we\u2019re not working. The theater is special, because it\u2019s open air and the rapidly changing weather and environment becomes a character in the opera. I remember seeing Idomeneo and before his entrance for \u201cFuor del mar,\u201d there was an enormous thunderstorm that came up behind him and started roaring. It\u2019s the most romantic place to do opera that I know of.
\nMany people say that there\u2019s a spirituality to the town. I\u2019m not quite sure that I\u2019ve seen it, but I see that other people do see it. <\/strong>
\nI know people that have also said, \u201cI don\u2019t get it,\u201d but for me it is spiritual. I think it\u2019s especially if you go a little bit outside of the city, into the mountains. There\u2019s this Native American cult that speaks strongly to a lot of people. You really feel a different sense of history in that place than you do in New York or Philadelphia. It\u2019s a history that goes way before the Revolution. That for me is powerful.
\nYou\u2019r<\/strong>e extraordinarily open and available to younger singers and to your fans \u2014 which can add to your already busy schedule, because they have a lot they want to say to you and hear from you. How do you take a break from that? <\/strong>
\nI just close the door and say, \u201cThis is my own time now and I\u2019ll be back in a little while.\u201d At the beginning I thought I had to keep up, and \u201cOh, I have so much to do, I have to do this and do that, I have to write a blog.\u201d But every now and then I gently remind them that it\u2019s an extracurricular thing, and I leave off for a bit. And then I\u2019ll come back and go on a little bit of a tear. I\u2019m on a little bit of a tear right now!\u00a0 It\u2019s something I love, and I\u2019ll make sure that I continue to say no and turn it off when I need to, because I want to come back to it. I don\u2019t want it to become a chore. I enjoy it and I want to keep on enjoying it. So I guard that pretty carefully.<\/p>\n

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