Joyce DiDonato, photo by Brooke Shaden

By Paul Freeman [November 2016 Interview]

When you combine a glorious voice like Joyce DiDonato’s with an epic program, the results can be spectacular. That’s the case with “In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music,” the title of the opera sensation’s dramatic new album.

Of the compositions’ connective themes, DiDonato tells Pop Culture Classics,, “I think the key lies in the second part of the title: ‘Harmony Through Music.’ My hope is that as this album reflects the two worlds of war and peace that we seem to constantly waver between as a society. This particular musical journey will remind people they have a choice in which side they participate in.”

Selecting the pieces was an organic process. “In many ways, I feel the pieces found me. I have long wanted to record the towering pieces of ‘Dido’s Lament’ [from the opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell] and “Lascia ch’io pianga,” [from Handel’s “Rinaldo”], which helped me to settle on this particular theme. Once that was determined, the other pieces quite nearly just appeared - and the album was set!”

The new album’s baroque arias display immaculate technique, but also powerful emotion. Baroque music has always held a special appeal for DiDonato.

“It’s my musical home. I find an enormous freedom in terms of artistic expression, which I treasure. But perhaps more importantly, a kind of purity that I think allows for the greatest degree of connection to the emotional content at hand.”

For her current concert tour, the Grammy-winning DiDonato is performing with the Italian period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.

“Like me, they are willing to take a risk, to think a bit outside the box, to dare,” DiDonato says. “This makes us great partners in the musical adventure. But even more than that, they are superb musicians, invested in telling a story.”

DiDonato has invested herself, body and soul, in the arts. She now feels at home in the prestigious, glittering concert halls of the world. She was raised in an Irish American family (her maiden name is Joyce Flaherty) in Kansas.

“I grew up in a musical family. The call to singing and the stage was always present and persistent.”

But she didn’t even fantasize about one day becoming an international star. “I think I did when I was 8 or 9 years old, but once you hit the pre-teen years, somehow that dream was taught out of me.”

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, DiDonato lacked confidence. She had to overcome that. “That’s a long project, and one that ultimately came - I think - from simply giving myself permission to believe in myself. But it was not an automatic given.”

During her teen years, DiDonato sang in choirs and musicals, Once the curtain rose, she was comfortable.

“I felt at home when I first stepped onto stage in high school to play Vita Louise Simmons in ‘Harvey.’ That feeling has never left me, regardless of the location.”

While studying vocal music education Wichita State University, DiDonato saw a PBS broadcast of “Don Giovanni” and fell in love with opera. In her junior year, she was cast in the university’s production of “Die Fledermaus.”

“Performing in the chorus in college, and studying classical voice, it hit me that this art form demands absolutely everything of me that I am - physically, vocally, musically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. And I like that kind of a challenge. It has helped me grow more than anything else I could imagine.

“You must conquer so many elements: the vocal technique, languages, musical mastery, theatrical prowess, and a strong insight into the human condition.”

She excelled in graduate and apprentice programs and dazzled at her recitals. She made her debut at La Scala and performed with the finest opera companies throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Joyce DiDonato, photo by Brooke Shaden

Critics have raved about the mezzo-soprano. The Los Angeles Times praised her “glamour, charisma, intelligence, grace and remarkable talent.”

In tackling iconic roles, DiDonato had to avoid feeling she was, in a way, competing with other great singers of the past and present.

“There is that absolute tendency, because oftentimes it is how our audience is listening to us - through the speakers and memories of their favorites of the past. But that approach really can be artistic death, so I’ve worked hard to give myself permission to abandon a sense of competition with ghosts and simply deliver all that I can at the highest level possible in that moment, and be content with that.”

Being a later bloomer, who made her Met debut at 35, has given DiDonato an even greater appreciation for her success.

“My gratitude is off the charts and my appreciation for all I have been able to do is celestial,” says DiDonato, now 47. “I think what keeps me on course is a dedication to the music and the desire to communicate with the audience. If I make it about myself, I get off track immediately.”

Her focus and resilience are remarkable. In 2009, during a performance at London’s Convent Garden, DiDonato broke her leg. She somehow managed to make it through the end of the show and performed the rest of the run in a wheelchair, sporting a pink cast.

“Stopping just never occurred to me, in all honesty. It was only a question of ‘So HOW do I finish the show? Perhaps it’s a bit of my Irish stubbornness!”

When she’s on stage, DiDonato can find herself in a special zone. “Oftentimes - if I succeed in getting out of my own head.”

As for the effect she most want to have on her audience, DiDonato says, “Transformation. Freedom. Flight. Connection.”

She has found it gratifying to be able to use her celebrity to promote issues like equality, LGBT rights and arts education.

“I am fairly certain I would be promoting these issues regardless of my fate in life, but the fact that I have a kind of microphone, where more people encounter my support, makes me very happy, because I know it helps people along the way.”

DiDonato has garnered widespread acclaim and captured many awards. But the 2012 and 2016 Grammy wins were something special.

“Winning the Grammys has been rather cool, because I think it helps people outside the world of opera grab a certain kind of context about what I do. For example, I became a very cool aunt with my nieces and nephews who before might not have been too forthcoming that their crazy aunt is an opera singer. Now they say they have an aunt who won a Grammy and my cool factor improves enormously. It’s all about winning over the teens!”

For the latest news on this artist, visit www.joycedidonato.com.