Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall), New York
01 March 2007
A RECITAL of SPANISH SONG
Joyce DiDonato (mezzo)
Julius Drake (piano)
Enrique Granados:
Manuel De Falla:
Xavier Montsalvatge:
Joaquin Turina:
What the critics say
New York Sun, March 6, 2007
A Recital to Last the Ages
Have I got a voice recital for you – or rather, Weill Recital Hall did, Thursday night. Onstage was Joyce DiDonato, the Kansas-born mezzo (and her accompanist, the London-born Julius Drake). Ms. DiDonato sang a recital that should last in the memories of all who attended.
This lady has lit up opera stages around the world, and she is especially prized in Rossini. I have called her a “sparkplug” of a mezzo, and she is. But she has deep qualities, too. And the scintillation and depth were amply in evidence at Weill.
She began with five songs of Bizet, who should be known for more than “Carmen.” From the first moment, Ms. DiDonato was super-secure, both musically and technically. She was always in the center of the note. She did justice to both the words and the music, but remembered that musical matters are foremost. She used a wide range of dynamics – and she did not sing prissily, did not sing in a “recital voice.” She opened up as appropriate. No note was covered, no note was fake, no note was precious – this was just good, honest singing.
Ms. DiDonato poured on her celebrated personality, although “personality” is a poor word for what this singer has: It’s more like the ability to bring a piece fully to life. Throughout the Bizet songs, she was saucy and delicious. Normally, I am opposed to any acting in recital, and Ms. DiDonato acted, just a touch. But it seemed perfectly appropriate, even an enhancement.
Ms. DiDonato went on to another Horne specialty, as it happens, Rossini’s cantata “Giovanna d’Arco.” This is a tour de force for the mezzo who can make it so – and Ms. DiDonato is one of them. In addition to singing brilliantly, she sang bravely, especially when unaccompanied, and utterly exposed in that small hall. Ms. DiDonato presented what you have to call a scorching bel canto.
Her second half was all-Spanish, and she seemed to be channeling Conchita Supervia, her great mezzo predecessor (and a predecessor sparkplug). She started out with five songs of Granados – and her love of the language, along with the music, was obvious. She especially enjoyed those aitchy Gs. Each song was packed with soul, but Ms. DiDonato never overdid it.
Ms. DiDonato closed her printed program with three songs from Montsalvatge’s “Canciones negras,” though not the most famous, the lullaby that begins “Ninghe, ninghe, ninghe.” She was especially effective in the jazzy and infectious “Canto negro.” It was simply – to use high-flown critical language – way-cool.
Ladies and gentlemen, you hope against hope for a first-rate voice recital – and, occasionally, you get one.
William R. Braun, Operanews.com, May 2007
As a display of vocalism, Joyce DiDonato’s Weill Hall recital on March 1 could hardly be faulted. There were delicious, juicy low F-sharps, there were ringing high Bs, and there was quite literally everything in between. Text in three languages was always clear. There was plenty of breath for a sudden ascent, even at the end of a long, florid line, and in the third of Falla’s Seven Spanish Songs there was enviable legato. But there is also art in the programming of a two-hour performance, and here DiDonato was not nearly so adept. Certainly we want singers to give us music that suits their voices. Certainly audiences enjoy hearing music that they already know. When so much of the repertoire is thrice familiar, however, there are dangers. One is that the artist will be compared to an ideal representing an aggregate of the best moments of the fine performances others have given. As DiDonato made her way through five familiar Bizet songs, Rossini’s Joan of Arc cantata, five Granados songs and the ubiquitous Falla set, she did not make me feel that there was one substantial piece of music in the lot. (This is not an opinion I actually happen to hold.) And up through the Falla, she did not make me feel that she had selected this music because she loved it – although the Falla songs and Granados’s Tres Majas Dolorosas are featured on her current CD of Spanish music, ¡Pasión!.
DiDonato is a fine performer, and there were some touches of individuality. As Bizet’s Arabian hostess, she was hurt and a bit angry at the departure of the traveler. Joan of Arc’s triumphant coda was earthy and hard-won, a pole apart from divinely inspired. Unlike many singers in this piece, she filled out her sound, rather than lightening it, in the passages of dense coloratura, and the effect was exciting. But we didn’t truly hear the optimum connection of singer and material until her concluding Montsalvatge group – also featured on ¡Pasion! – when we realized what had been missing.
At the root, though, perhaps DiDonato had simply engaged the wrong pianist for this program, which had toured to several cities before landing in New York. Julius Drake has been a master of such a wide range of music that it has seemed he can do no wrong. But he doesn’t “do” sultry, and he doesn’t sparkle. His coda to the second Granados “Maja dolorosa” was the most prosaic playing I’d heard from a professional stage, until I heard his introduction to the first encore, Rossini’s “Canzonetta spagnuola.” Drake doesn’t “orchestrate” sounds on the piano. There was no way the distant bugle calls in the Rossini scena were ever going to sound like distant bugle calls. There’s room for disagreement on the desirability of doing so (Alfred Brendel is in Drake’s camp), but DiDonato’s program on this particular occasion often cried out for it. When his approach suits the pianistic figuration of a song, as it does Bizet’s “Chanson d’avril,” all is well. The evening had enough successes to be enjoyable, but mostly it made this listener want to hear these artists again in other circumstances.