I was lucky enough to attend one of the special events that Covent Garden have put on to compliment their season of opera. Having just seen Joyce DiDonato as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (see previous post) I was looking forward to hearing what this great mezzo-soprano had to say about her role and her career. For the last four months or so I have been following her career via her upbeat blog (http://yankeediva.blogspot.com); hearing about the challenging roles like Romeo in Bellini's Il Capuleti and her preparation for Don Giovanni......
Joyce DiDonato talked about singing techniques, American optimism and Frederica Von Stade amongst other things. I was struck by her humility in the light of such great success; she seems still like 'the girl next door'.... She touched on the role of Donna Elvira and her preparation. The role is normally sung by a soprano but Ms. DiDonato having scrutinized the score found that her voice could handle the range; especially when she found a transposed version of the last aria that Mozart himself had written. The transposition was only by half a step but this made all the difference and allowed her to sing the role comfortably. Indeed she noted that in the trios with Donna Anna and Zerlina or Donna Anna and Don Octavio a third voice of a different quality appeared to add extra colour. She had nothing but praise for the Maestro Sir Charles Mackerras who she thought was 'sunshine'; giving her the structure that she needed to prepare with limited rehearsal time and the flexibility to allow for some changes.
Asked about whether she thought there was a particular mid-western American style of singing (that is where she was brought up) she quickly diverted to expressing that there was an American optimism which often or not is coupled with an arrogance... her train of thought was sliding to the political which she tried to steer away from but not before vaguely bemoaning the intolerance of the Bible belt... I almost wish she had started to talk politics; she obviously had some strong views.
Joyce DiDonato just oozes humility and has none of the American arrogance she mentioned; she dislikes to hear her performances and visiably whinces through the extracts played from her numerous recordings. No wonder her favourite artist is Frederica Von Stade citing her generosity in performing; how Von Stade's work was all 'about giving'. Seeing her in Don Giovanni and during this talk you can tell that DiDonato shares this generosity of spirit.
This humility is highlighted when she talks about here training at Houston's young artist programme; she was brought down a peg or two by her singing teacher Steve Smith who said that if she kept singing like that she would have a very short career; she was was singing 'on youth and muscle'. She described how she spent a year or so 'learning how to sing'.
She still keeps her ties to Houston Grand Opera and will be back there later this month for a role debut in Béatrice and Bénédict. She has kept her ties with her singing teacher Steve Smith - expounding the virtues of technology by solving a tired voice over Skype with him (she is after all the blogger Yankee Diva).
On asked about her eclectic tastes of repertoire - take her Spanish repertoire or some of the obscure elements of her most recent Wigmore Hall appearance she acknowledges her curiosity. The Pasion recording with the pianist Julius Drake came about purely by chance whilst visiting Drake and perusing his record collection; they arranged the recording there and then.
The evening was finished off by a look at her performance in Handel's Hercules - 'Where shall I fly' - a little taster of her upcoming recording Furore, a collection of furious pieces indeed. Out in November in Europe and a definite buy I think.
Joyce DiDonato will be back in London come the spring as Rosina in the Barber of Seville with not so much angst and a whole lot of fun.
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