The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
‘We need music to fill us with courage, not doom’
Joyce DiDonato is in her prime. A beautiful, vivacious mezzosoprano from Kansas City, the 47-year-old has dazzled at the Last Night of the Proms, won a brace of awards for her recordings, enjoyed standing ovations everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Covent Garden and sent critics scrabbling for superlatives. The only way from such an eminence is down, so it’s fortunate that hers is not a head that is easily turned or distracted.
“I’ve just read a review that said my voice was in good shape ‘for my age’,” she says when we meet in the German city of Lübeck. “‘Aha,’ I thought, ‘so this sort of thing is starting and I have to cope with it.’ There’s also this expectation that when I go out on stage the voice should sound like it did five years ago. But I can’t let such things hold me back: it’s death for an artist to compete with themselves like that.”
DiDonato has nothing to worry about; her combination of impeccable technique, intuitive acting and ineffable stage presence has secured her a special place in the hearts of fans all over the world. But, despite her obvious joy for what she does – her Twitter feed is full of emotional exclamations about her work (“Donizetti, you are killing me with these melodies! Is it possible to have too much beauty?”) – she is also media-savvy, razor-sharp and someone with crystal-clear focus.
The fact she had to struggle to reach this point in her life might explain a lot. Born Joyce Flaherty (the Italian surname came from her first of two ex-husbands), DiDonato grew up in a large Catholic family. Her father, an architect, was also a noted choirmaster and fostered her love of music, but DiDonato laboured through conservatoire training and assumed she would be a music teacher.
When she eventually decided to try performing, it was a slow burn – she sang in regional opera houses and suffered rejection from a dozen top opera houses, before her potential was spotted by the Paris Opéra and she was cast as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in 2002.
Since then, DiDonato has become a seasoned pro. Indeed, cancellation is not a word that features in her vocabulary. In 2009 at Covent Garden, she broke bones in her leg after a nasty fall on stage but insisted on finishing the performance from a wheelchair. This physical grit is mirrored by a mental toughness.
“I’m much more confident than I was. I’ve become more assertive – and my tolerance has lowered. I don’t throw fits about hotel rooms – but I do expect everyone that I’m working with to rise to the occasion.”
DiDonato’s latest project has an extra-musical dimension. In War and Peace is a collection of baroque arias drawn from Purcell, Handel and lesser masters of the age. The first seven numbers depict aspects of aggression, revenge and destruction; the remaining eight explore themes of reconciliation, tranquillity and resolution.
The world’s problems are manifold. But, mezzo star Joyce DiDonato tells Rupert Christiansen, if we listen carefully opera can help us solve them