No one can accuse Joyce DiDonato of doing the same old things.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a season of discovery for the great American mezzo-soprano, and she says that\u2019s just how she likes it.<\/p>\n
DiDonato, who earned international acclaim in opera roles such as Rosina in Rossini\u2019s \u201cThe Barber of Seville\u201d — a role she has sung many times, around the world, to perfection — has just finished singing the role of Virginia Woolf in \u201cThe Hours.\u201d The new opera by composer Kevin Puts, which also featured singers Renee Fleming and Kelli O\u2019Hara, made its staged world premiere to rave reviews in November at the Metropolitan Opera.<\/p>\n
Now DiDonato\u2019s returning to the Bay Area with a new program, \u201cEden,\u201d a semi-staged concert focusing on climate, the natural world, and our place in it. Directed by Marie Lambert-Le Bihan and conducted by Zefira Valova, it features DiDonato and the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d\u2019Oro in a program spanning early music to a new work by English composer Rachel Portman. Performances are scheduled at Stanford University and UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n
In a recent phone conversation, it was easy to hear DiDonato\u2019s excitement about the project, which she said is both a reflection on the beauties of the natural world and a call to action to preserve them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched this work in the spring, in Brussels, and we did a handful of festival performances at the end of the summer,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been the most special project of my career. It feels so timely to be talking about our connection to each other, and to the world around us.\u201d<\/p>\n
DiDonato says the project was inspired in part by an earlier program, \u201cIn War and Peace: Harmony through Music,\u201d which she performed with Il Pomo d\u2019Oro at Stanford in 2016.<\/p>\n
This program is \u201can extension, if not quite a sequel\u201d to “War and Peace,” she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s certainly connected. There was a quote by Jonathan Larson that said \u2018the opposite of war is not peace, it\u2019s creation.\u2019 I don\u2019t think it was conscious, when I came up with the title \u2018Eden.\u2019 But it\u2019s directly related — that this is about creation, about asking \u2018What are we participating in, in the creation from day to day life that we\u2019re living now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The music for the program opens with Ives\u2019s \u201cThe Unanswered Question\u201d and closes with Mahler\u2019s autumnal \u201cIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommen.\u201d In between are works by Cavalli, Handel, Copland and others — along with Portman\u2019s newly composed \u201cEden.\u201d DiDonato said she\u2019s thrilled with the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were setting up the repertoire for this concert, we all wanted to get outside of the Baroque world and go in whatever direction we felt the music would take us,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone thought it would take us to Ives, but there we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portman\u2019s new work, created specifically for this project, exceeded expectations, DiDonato added. \u201cIt\u2019s been a joy to work with her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n