Performer’s notes

Lisette Oropesa

Tell us about working with this fabulous team...

We rehearsed for two weeks in a villa in Italy in the middle of nowhere and it was beautiful! It felt like this real Baroque space, and we were all alone, so we just got to know the piece very intimately as a group; it was really special. Il Pomo d’oro is great and Maxim is very enthusiastic about the music. It was just fantastic and I loved it. You toured with it before recording – is that the best way? I think it helps to have a few goes at it, doing it in continuity and then recording later, patching any bits that were maybe not so together or things that could have benefitted from doing them a second time. It was a really visceral experience, not a studio experience; in a performance you’re engaging with the audience and each other. It just adds spontaneity. What are the challenges of playing Theodora?

I struggled to find the human side, because this is a character that’s set in her beliefs and virtues. Irene, the character that Joyce sings, is a much more conflicted soul; I think she’s got more of a struggle, trying to lead everybody. Theodora has a slight struggle in that I think that she really does care for Didymus, in particular when she realises that he has come to rescue her and puts his life at risk for her; I think she falls in love. She doesn’t have to separate her love for a man from her love for the Lord; she doesn’t become a nun, but she does become a martyr in trying to save him. So she’s a religious figure, but she is also a woman and a person.