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Joyce DiDonato: In War & Peace

Label: Erato

Cat No: 9029592846

Barcode: 0190295928469

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 4th November 2016

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Artists

Joyce DiDonato (soprano)
Il Pomo d’Oro

Conductor

Maxim Emelyanychev

Artists

Joyce DiDonato (soprano)
Il Pomo d’Oro

Conductor

Maxim Emelyanychev

About

“Perhaps my most personal project to date,” is how American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato describes In War and Peace: Harmony through Music. Her ambitions for this collection of arias from Baroque operas are substantial. Surrounded as we are by instability, she hopes it will help us find an answer to a vitally important question: “In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?”

Her aim is to “steer conversation and discourse … to help all of us find peace in our lives in a dynamic way … As I have tried to convey in this selection of music, the power to bravely tip the scales towards peace lies firmly within every single one of us.”

DiDonato, an opera singer who certainly does not live in an ivory tower, was motivated to assemble the programme after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. She had been planning an exploratory album with an emphasis on rare arias, but in the light of the tragic events she rethought her approach, giving it wider and deeper implications.

In War and Peace: Harmony through Music was recorded with Il Pomo d’Oro under its principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev. The programme comprises 15 arias divided into two sections: ‘War’ and ‘Peace’. Both contain music by Purcell and Handel – including, to close ‘War’, Dido’s dignified, but searing lament from Dido and Aeneas and Almirena’s haunting and heartbreaking ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Rinaldo. An excerpt from Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse is included in ‘Peace’, which concludes with Cleopatra’s spirited and defiantly optimistic ‘Da tempeste il legno infranto’ from Giulio Cesare. A further aria from Giulio Cesare is the bonus track for the album; it is Sesto’s touching apostrophe to hope, ‘Cara speme’, which Joyce DiDonato sings unforgettably on a floating whisper of breath.

In her search for peace and harmony, the American singer did not entirely desert her musicological quest, and the album also contains no fewer than three world premiere recordings: a ‘War’ aria from Andromaca by the Neapolitan composer Leonardo Leo (1694-1744), and two ‘Peace’ arias, from the operas Attila and Attilio Regolo, by another Neapolitan, Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774).

When Baroque opera was at its height, the highly stylised art form was famously described by the English writer Dr Samuel Johnson as “an exotic and irrational entertainment which has always been combated, and always has prevailed”. It is nearly three centuries since he made that judgement, but opera has continued to prevail – by impassioning performers and thrilling and moving audiences: nothing rivals it in giving intense, compelling expression to matters of life, love and death. Over recent decades, opera of the Baroque era has gained a new and vigorous life, with frequent revivals of works by such masters as Handel, Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Purcell, and the rediscovery of operas by composers who had fallen into obscurity.

Fuelled by these arias, Joyce DiDonato is fervently committed the cause of engaging the hearts and minds of music-lovers around the world. As she leads the way forward, long may opera – and peace – prevail.

WAR
1. Handel – Jeptha: Scenes of Horror, scenes of woe (Storgè)
2. Leo – Andromaca: Prendi quel ferro, o barbaro! (Andromaca) world premiere recording
3. Handel – Giulio Cesare: Vani sono i lamenti…Svegliatevi nel core (Sesto)
4. Purcell – The Indian Queen: They tell us that you mighty powers above (Orazia)
5. Handel – Agrippina: Pensieri, voi mi tormentate (Agrippina)
6. Purcell – Dido and Aeneas: Dido’s Lament Thy hand, Belinda…When I am laid in earth (Dido)
7. Handel – Rinaldo: Lascia ch’io pianga (Almirena)

PEACE
8. Purcell – Bonduca or the British Heroine: Oh! Lead me to some peaceful gloom (Bonvica)
9. Handel – Rinaldo: Augelletti che cantate (Almirena)
10. Jommelli – Attilio Regolo: Sprezza il furor del vento (Attila) world premiere recording
11. Purcell – The Indian Queen: Why should men quarrel? (a girl)
12. Jommelli – Attilio Regolo: Par che di Giubilo (Attilio Regolo) world premiere recording
13. Handel – Susanna: Lead me, oh lead me to some cool retreat…Crystal streams in murmurs flowing (Susanna)
14. Monteverdi – Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria: Illustratevi, o cieli (Penelope)
15. Handel – Giulio Cesare: Da tempeste il legno infranto (Cleopatra)

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Handel: Jephtha, HWV 70 - Act 1: Some Dire Event Hangs O'Er Our Heads...Scenes Of Horror, Scenes Of Woe
2

Leo: Andromaca - Act 1: Prendi Quel Ferro, O Barbaro!
3

Handel: Giulio Cesare, HWV 17 - Act 1: Vani Sono I Lamenti...Svegliatevi Nel Core
4

Purcell: The Indian Queen, Z 630 - Act 3: They Tell Us That You Mighty Powers Above
5

Handel: Agrippina, HWV 6 - Act 2: Pensieri, Voi Mi Tormentate
6

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas, Z 626 - Act 3: Thy Hand, Belinda...When I Am Laid In Earth
7

Handel: Rinaldo, HWV 7 - Act 2: Lascia Ch'Io Pianga
8

Purcell: Bonduca, Or The British Heroine, Z 574 - Oh! Lead Me To Some Peaceful Gloom
9

Handel: Rinaldo, HWV 7 - Act 1: Augelletti Che Cantate
10

Jommelli: Attilio Regolo - Act 2: Sprezza Il Furor Del Vento
11

Purcell: The Indian Queen, Z 630 - Prologue: Why Should Men Quarrel?
12

Jommelli: Attilio Regolo - Act 1: Par Che Di Giubilo
13

Handel: Susanna, HWV 66 - Act 2: Lead Me, Oh Lead Me To Some Cool Retreat....Crystal Streams In Murmurs Flowing
14

Monteverdi: Il Ritorno D'Ulisse In Patria - Act 5: Illustratevi, O Cieli
15

Handel: Giulio Cesare, HWV 17 - Act 3: Da Tempeste Il Legno Infranto

Europadisc Review

This new album from star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is her highly personal response to the 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris. Her point of departure is the highly topical question: ‘In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?’ The booklet contains a wide variety of public figures, ranging from inmates of the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, New York, to US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and musicians including Janet Baker, Alfred Brendel and András Schiff.

DiDonato’s own musical response is a journey through a variety of scenes and arias from Baroque operas and oratorios. The lion’s share goes to Handel, with Purcell not far behind; also included are Monteverdi (Penelope’s ‘Illustratevi, o cieli’ from Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), and world premiere recordings of arias by Leonardo Leo and Niccolò Jommelli. A wide range indeed, from early to late Baroque, and DiDonato matches this with an enviable array of tone colours and expressive intensity. Hers is a voice of huge emotional power, yet with an entirely focused and controlled technique, and the results are profoundly moving.

The first half of the disc is devoted to arias focused on conflict (external or internal), while the second shifts the spotlight to piece. For vocal fireworks, try ‘Prendi quel ferro, o barbaro!’ from Leo’s Andromaca (1742), where DiDonato rises magnificently to the challenge of the vocal writing. Subtler shading is required in two items from Purcell’s The Indian Queen (1695), ‘They tell us that you mighty powers above’ and ‘Why should men quarrel’, the latter with delightful instrumental contributions from the musicians of Il Pomo d’Oro (the Monteverdi aria is similarly stylish). The two Jommelli arias – sung by two different characters, Regolo and his daughter Attilia in the 1753 opera Attilio Regolo – are finely characterised and full of spirit.

But the standout items here are the Handel arias: with their often contrasting middle sections, they provide perhaps the greatest expressive challenge to a singer, and DiDonato is matchless in them. From Agrippina’s searching, anguished ‘Pensieri, voi mi tormente’ to the lovely ‘Crystal streams’ from Susanna and Almirena’s hushed yet heartfelt ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Rinaldo, this is singing of superb artistry and rare intensity, matched every step of the way by Maxim Emelyanychev and his players. Special mention should be made of the outstanding obbligato playing of oboist Magdalena Karolak in Agrippina’s aria, and Anna Fusek sopranino recorder in ‘Augelletti, che cantate' from Rinaldo.

Finally, the highlight of the ‘War’ section must be one of the most memorable accounts of Dido’s Lament you’re ever likely to hear, beautifully contained, with exquisitely hushed tones where most singers are still going full throttle, and a tellingly inflected appoggiatura on the repeat of ‘Remember me’. If one track here sums up the whole disc, it is this one, for all its tragedy.

And the album as a whole? Be open to the question it asks of you, and find your own response with the aid of the music. One of the most striking and affecting discs of the year.

Reviews

The “war” tracks open with Handel’s Scenes of Horror, and mix familiar (Dido’s Lament, Lascia ch’io pianga) with an arresting world premiere recording from Leonardo Leo’s Adromaca (1742). In “peace”, Monteverdi and Jommelli feature too. DiDonato brings technical security and a variety of tonal colours to each aria. Il Pomo d’Oro offer bristling accompaniment under principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev. Fiona Maddocks

The Observer 30 October 2016

Returning to the repertoire where it all began, ‘In War & Peace’ finds DiDonato back on Baroque ground for the first time in a while, and it’s a joyful musical homecoming. The risks are bigger, the dramatic stakes higher than in ‘Drama Queens’ – it’s as if she and the musicians of Il Pomo d’Oro are playing an elaborate game of chicken, each daring the other to spin a quieter, more fragile pianissimo, or to ornament a da capo with more ferocious brilliance. ... Roaming freely between alto and soprano roles, DiDonato once again demonstrates the flexibility of a voice capable of finding both the innocent simplicity of an Almirena and the mature emotions of Dido or Monteverdi’s Penelope – ‘Illustratevi o cieli’, the queen’s long-delayed release into aria, radiates hard-won contentment. Alexandra Coghlan

Gramophone November 2016