Rossini - Colbran, the Muse - Erato: 6945790 - download

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This is an artist who moves between registers with grace and skill, whose legato is seamless and whose tone is pearly. Indeed so creamy in 'D'amor al dolce impero', also from Armida, that you... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2010, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Nov 2009
Catalogue No: 6945790
Label: Erato
Length: 71 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

December 2009

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2010

Winner - Recital
Opera

February 2010

Recording of the Month

Excerpt, Rossini: Armida

Work length7:37

$1.30

$1.70

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Lawrence Brownlee, Corrado Amici, Marcovalerio Marletta (director)
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Armida: D'amor al dolce impero

Track length7:37

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Excerpt, Rossini: La donna del lago

Work length13:04

$3.90

$5.10

Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Marcovalerio Marletta (director)
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Oh mattutini albori

Track length4:42

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$1.70

Tanti affetti in tal momento

Track length4:16

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Fra il padre, e fra l'amante

Track length4:06

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Excerpt, Rossini: Maometto Secondo

Work length3:37

$1.30

$1.70

Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Giusto ciel, in tal periglio (Anna)

Track length3:37

$1.30

$1.70

Excerpt, Rossini: Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra

Work length6:50

$1.30

$1.70

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Marcovalerio Marletta (director)
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Qant'è grato all'alma mia

Track length6:50

$1.30

$1.70

Excerpt, Rossini: Semiramide

Work length9:24

$2.60

$3.40

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Marcovalerio Marletta (director)
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Serena i vaghi rai.... Bel raggio lusinghier

Track length3:15

$1.30

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Bel raggio lusinghier di speme

Track length6:09

$1.30

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Excerpt, Rossini: Otello

Work length18:45

$6.50

$8.50

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roberta De Nicola (soprano), Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor)
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Ah! Dagli affanni oppressa

Track length3:36

$1.30

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Nessun maggior dolore

Track length1:48

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O come infino al core

Track length2:57

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Assisa appiè d'un salice

Track length7:49

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Deh calma, o ciel, nel sonno

Track length2:35

$1.30

$1.70

Excerpt, Rossini: Armida

Work length12:32

$3.90

$5.10

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Corrado Amici (tenor), Carlo Putelli (tenor), Marcovalerio Marletta (director)
Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo Müller
Recorded: 2009-06-08
Recording Venue: 8-12 June 2009. Sala Santa Cecilia - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

Se al mio crudel tormento

Track length5:39

$1.30

$1.70

Dove son io!

Track length4:33

$1.30

$1.70

È ver....gode quest'anima

Track length2:20

$1.30

$1.70

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“A superstar in the Rossini repertory” Chicago Tribune

After the success of her first Virgin Classics recital – Furore, arias by Handel – Joyce DiDonato turns to the composer whose heroines first brought her to international stardom: Gioacchino Rossini.

“Is Joyce DiDonato the world's best Rossini singer?”, asked the New York magazine Opera News after the American mezzo sang the finale of La Cenerentola at Carnegie Hall in January 2009. “That title certainly seemed hers by sovereign right,” it continued; “Her phrasing was silky, her timbre rich and glowing, and her ornaments were impeccably stylish and utterly beguiling. Most impressive was DiDonato's combination of immaculate technical control with an air of wild, unstoppable joy. This was truly a moment to treasure from an artist who is at the very top of her game.”

If La Cenerentola does not appear in this new recital, recorded in Rome in June, her other signature Rossini role holds a place of honour: she has been described by the UK’s Sunday Times as “the world’s reigning Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia”. In 2009 alone she sings the role in Vienna, London (to be recorded for DVD by Virgin Classics) and New York, and the role has also taken her to Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Houston, San Francisco, Bologna and Rossini’s birthplace, Pesaro.

Rossini’s two best-known comic operas proved essential in building the Kansas-born singer’s reputation over the last decade, but this recital focuses primarily on his serious works – although the tragic tensions do not perhaps run as consistently high as in DiDonato’s first Virgin Classics recital: Furore, the Handel programme released last year and described by The Daily Telegraph as “an exhilarating roller-coaster of a recital from a charismatic singing-actress”.

This Rossini programme includes two arias from La donna del lago, which DiDonato is scheduled to sing over the coming seasons in Geneva, Paris, Milan and London. She takes the role of Elena, written for a soprano, but a great success in the 1980s for DiDonato’s idol, fellow high mezzo Frederica von Stade. The other arias on the CD were also all composed for soprano: they come from Otello, Semiramide, Armida, Maometto II and Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra. DiDonato proved that she can triumph in music written for soprano with her recent complete recording of Handel’s Alcina and her debut last year in the role of Mozart’s Donna Elvira; the performances at London’s Royal Opera House prompted The Guardian to describe her as “the real star … singing her first Elvira and nailing even the topmost notes,” while The Daily Telegraph praised her performance in a similar vein: “The star of the show was … Joyce DiDonato, who sang Elvira with a style, sensitivity and bravura that outclassed everyone else on stage.”

To return to Rossini and Rosina, the role for DiDonato’s debut at the Vienna State Opera in April 2009, the Wiener Zeitung had this to say: “She tossed off crystal-clear coloratura, presented a dark, secure low register, a confidently nuanced mid-range, bright and voluminous high notes – in short, everything that makes for great, modern bel canto style. She appears undaunted by the role's many technically tricky passages, and even more: she sang musically challenging variations on every repeated phrase, shaped every single bar with brio, and presented a psychologically multi-faceted characterisation with wildly joyful abandon.”

Reviews

January 2010

This is an artist who moves between registers with grace and skill, whose legato is seamless and whose tone is pearly. Indeed so creamy in 'D'amor al dolce impero', also from Armida, that you feel you could eat it on a spoon. Then there's that hushed quality to DiDonato's singing; a thrilling sensation that she's holding back, say at the beginning of 'Tanti affeti' from La donna del lago. Conductor Edoardo Müller is the perfect partner showing DiDonato off to her best advantage.

December 2009

DiDonato is proving herself one of the most delightful artists of our time. She sings with a rare purity of tone, ease on the high Bs, an impressive degree of technical skill and lively powers of characterisation. She is invigoratingly precise in her placement, fluent in scale work and well furnished with staccati and trills. ...the difficult repertoire is sung with charm and mastery, and from all we read, their original exponent, to whom the recital is dedicated, is worthily honoured. Choral and orchestral work are equally stylish, and the short tenor solos by Lawrence Brownlee are a treat.

May 2014

one of my favourite single-composer recitals of recent years - not only for the sheer technical mastery of DiDonato's singing (her wide range, evenness of tone and flexibility appear to supreme advantage here), but also for her ability to convey the versatility of a composer who's sometimes accused of lacking it!

22nd November 2009

DiDonato’s pearly tone and easy coloratura make this difficult music sound effortless: she sports a more than acceptable trill, brilliant high staccato notes and long-breathed cantilena lines, prerequisites for a singer of the bel canto repertoire...This is outstanding Rossini singing by any standards, idiomatically accompanied.

20th November 2009

A majestic display from first to last, DiDonato balancing precision and emotion.

18th February 2010

This disc features some of the most authoritative bel canto singing that I have heard since Cecilia Bartoli emerged 20 years ago. Joyce DiDonato combines superb coloratura technique and clarity of tone with musical intelligence.

20th November 2009

In everything she does, DiDonato convinces...There’s more on display than simple technical triumphs. Her clear diction, controlled breaths and phrasing, and the diversity of her emotional colouring always bring her characters to life and make each one an individual... Long live the yankeediva.

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Aria from Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra

Rossini - Colbran, the Muse

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