Opera Scotland

My Favourite Things 2021Edinburgh International Festival

Read more about the opera Recital

A decade since her first visit to Edinburgh, the return of Joyce DiDonato was awaited with impatience. Now recognized as one of the great performers, a recital lasting just over an hour was characterised by a sense of excitement not just from the singer and the audience, but also from the magnificent band, who had themselves been deprived of contact with a live audience throughout the months of the worst of the pandemic.  The limited number of socially-spaced tickets for the two shows could no doubt have been sold ten times over.

In the period before lockdown it appeared that this great singer was beginning to concentrate on music of the bel canto period, such as Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, which she had performed at the New York Met.  Here, however, she revealed that her 'Favourite Things' came from an earlier period, with arias by Dowland, Monteverdi, Cesti, Handal and Hasse.  There was also a generous group of dance interludes by Rossi and Rameau.

Perhaps the most surprising inclusion was the completely non-operatic Dowland song, placed between the Rameau instrumental pieces, and before the one truly joyous solo, Ariodante's 'Dopo notte.'

There were two juxtaposed arias for unhappy Cleopatra - one familiar by Handel and one far less so by  Hasse.  Ottavia's bitter farewell to Rome as she goes to her death was certainly given with huge dramatic punch.

This thrilling concert ended with Irene's calm solo from Theodora - late Handel now being recognized as a master work.

 

The complete programme was:

Rossi:  Sinfonia grave a cinque voci.

Monteverdi: 'Illustratevi o cieli'.

Cesti:  'Intorno all' idol mio.'

Monteverdi:  Sinfonia.

Monteverdi: 'Addio Roma' L'incoronazione di Poppea.

Handel:  Overture Ariodante.

Hasse:  'Morte col fiero aspetto' Cesare e Cleopatra.

Handel:  'Piangerò la sorte mia' Giulio Cesare.

Rameau:  Sarabande, Air en Rondeay,  Air très vif Zoroastre.

Dowland:  'Come again, sweet love doth now invite'.

Rameau:  Orage Les Indes Galantes.

Handel:  'Dopo notte'  Ariodante.

Handel: 'As with rosy steps the morn' Theodora  (encore).