The Opening Gala of the XII Baroque Opera Festival

Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio

EDEN

Joyce DiDonato

Orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro

CONDUCTOR

Edson Scheid

Joyce DiDonato: EDEN
CHARLES IVES The Unanswered Question 5.30

RACHEL PORTMAN The First Morning of the World 8.00
Text: Gene Scheer
Commissioned by Linda Nelson in memory of her beloved Stuart

GUSTAV MAHLER Rückert-Lieder: II. “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft!” 2.30
Text: Friedrich Rückert

MARCO UCCELLINI Sinfonia terza (a cinque stromenti) op.7 2.20
BIAGIO MARINI Scherzi e canzone Op.5: III. “Con le stelle in Ciel che mai” (Natività di Christo, per canto solo da cantarsi nel chitarrone) 4.00
Text: anon.

JOSEF MYSLIVEČEK Aria: “Toglierò le sponde al mare” (Angelo di giustizia) 5.12
Libretto: Giovanni Granelli
Oratorio Adamo ed Eva (Part II)

AARON COPLAND 8 Poems of Emily Dickinson for voice and chamber orchestra:
I. Nature, the gentlest mother 4.00

GIOVANNI VALENTINI Sonata enharmonica 5.00

FRANCESCO CAVALLI Aria: “Piante ombrose” (Calisto) 2.30
Libretto: Giovanni Faustini
Opera La Calisto (Act I, Scene 14)

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Danza degli spettri e delle furie: Allegro non troppo 3.54
Opera Orfeo ed Euridice Wq. 30
Opera Ezio Wq. 15
Libretto: Pietro Metastasio

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Recitativo accompagnato: “Misera, dove son!”… 2.40

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Aria: “Ah! non son io che parlo” (Fulvia) 4.40

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Aria: “As with rosy steps the morn” (Irene) 7.08

Dramatic oratorio Theodora HWV 68 (Part I)
GUSTAV MAHLER Rückert-Lieder: III. “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” 6.09
Text: Friedrich Rückert

“The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time- but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.” Jake Heggie, Gramophone
Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has towered to the top of the industry as a performer, a producer, and a fierce advocate for the arts. With a repertoire spanning over four centuries, a varied and highly acclaimed discography, and industry-leading projects, her artistry has defined what it is to be a singer in the 21st century.

Joyce begins her ambitious 2023-24 season by opening The Metropolitan Opera’s season performing her signature role of Sister Helen in a new production of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, where she will return later in the season to revive her critically acclaimed “Virginia Woolf” in Kevin Puts’ The Hours. This season also sees Joyce touring Dido & Aeneas with Il Pomo d’Oro, and further tours of EDEN and the Grammy Award-winning SONGPLAY in Asia, South America, and Europe. In concert Joyce appears with her hometown Kansas City Symphony Orchestra for a series of subscription concerts, as well as performances in Istanbul, Strasbourg, and Paris. Joyce also performs in recital at Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Wiener Musikverein and Carnegie Hall.

Recent highlights include giving the world premiere of Tod Machover’s Overstory Overture in the role of Patricia Westertord at Alice Tully Hall in New York and Seoul Arts Center in South Korea and an in-depth residency at Musikkollegium Winterthur. Joyce’s groundbreaking EDEN Tour has had further success with recent tours in Europe and North America. In June 2022, Joyce joined the Metropolitan Orchestra for a tour that included the orchestra’s first visit to the UK in over 20 years, with performances at The Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris and Festpielhaus Baden-Baden. Her performance was “the embodiment of musical perfection”, according to the Wochenglatt Reporter.

In opera, Joyce’s recent roles include Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at the Royal Opera House, Didon in Les Troyens at the Wiener Staatsoper; Sesto in Cendrillon and Adalgisa in Norma at the Metropolitan Opera; Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanchev; Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and London’s Barbican Centre; Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera House, and Charlotte in Werther at the Royal Opera House.

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Joyce has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra USA under Sir Antonio Pappano.

An exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics/Erato, Joyce’s expansive discography includes the highly celebrated Les Troyens (winning Gramophone’s coveted Recording of the Year) and Handel’s Agrippina (Gramophone’s Opera Recording of the Year). Joyce’s other albums include her singular EDEN that has toured to nearly 40 cities globally, the acclaimed Winterreise with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Grammy Award winning Songplay, In War & Peace, the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award, Stella di Napoli, Grammy-Award-winning Diva Divo and Drama Queens. Other honours include the Gramophone Artist and Recital of the Year awards, as well as an inaugural inductee into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.

The ensemble il pomo d’oro was founded in 2012. It is characterized by an authentic, dynamic interpretation of operas and instrumental works from the Baroque and Classical period. The musicians are all well-known specialists and are among the best in the field of historical performance practice. The ensemble so far worked with the conductors Riccardo Minasi, Maxim Emelyanychev, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri and Francesco Corti. Concert master Zefira Valova leads the orchestra in various projects. Since 2016 Maxim Emelyanychev has been its chief conductor, and since 2019 Francesco Corti is principal guest conductor.

Il pomo d’oro is a regular guest in prestigious concert halls and festivals all over Europe. After the worldwide success of the program «In War and Peace» with Joyce DiDonato, in 2020 il pomo d’oro and Maxim Emelyanychev presented My favorite things with the and is now on tour worldwide with Eden, the latest program and album of il pomo d’oro, Maxim Emelyanychev and the American Mezzosoprano.

The discography of il pomo d’oro includes several opera recordings: G. F. Händel’s Agrippina, Serse, Tamerlano, Partenope and Ottone,  Leonardo Vinci’ s Catone in Utica, and Alessandro Stradella’s La Doriclea. It features Recitals with the countertenors Jakub Józef Orliński,  Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, and Xavier Sabata, with mezzosopranos Ann Hallenberg and Joyce DiDonato and with sopranos Lisette Oropesa, Emöke Barath and Francesca Aspromonte. Among the instrumental albums the recordings of Haydn’s violin and harpsichord concertos as well as a cello album with Edgar Moreau received ‘Echo Klassik’ Awards in 2016. Further instrumental recordings are dedicated to the violin concertos and the harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach, with Shunske Sato and Francesco Corti as soloists, and to virtuoso violin concertos with Dmitry Sinkonvsky.

In 2021 new albums with Bach harpsichord concertos vol.2 with Francesco Corti, Ombra Compagna with Lisette Oropesa (Mozart concert arias) and Jakub Józef Orliński (Anima Aeterna) were released. In 2022 seven albums have been published: Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with Kathryn Lewek (Soprano) and John Chest (Bass), Mandolin on stage with Raffaele La Ragione (Mandolin), the new recital with Joyce DiDonato, Eden, Bach Harpsichord Concertos vol III with Francesco Corti, Violin Concertos by Benda, Graun, Saint-Georges and Sirmen with Zefira Valova as soloist, Roma Travestita with Soprano Bruno de Sá, and Handel’s oratorio Theodora with a stellar cast (Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Michael Spyres, John Chest) – also introducing the new vocal ensemble of il pomo d‘oro.

In 2022 il pomo d’oro started a long-term recording project of Mozart-Symphonies and selected solo-concerts with Maxim Emelyanychev conducting.

The albums Anima Sacra with Jakub Józef Orliński, and Voglio Cantar with soprano Emöke Barath received the prestigious Opus-Klassik award, and the recording of G.F. Händel’s Serse, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, was awarded the Italian ‘Abbiato del Disco’. In 2018, the recording of Alessandro Stradella’s opera La Doriclea, conducted by Andrea di Carlo, recieved the German ‘Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik’. Virtuosissimo with Dmitry Sinkovsky, released in 2019, received a ‘Diapason d’Or’. In 2022, Eden with Joyced DiDonato received a ‘Choc’ from Classica and an ‘Opus Klassik’.

Il pomo d’oro is official ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project to provide free musical education to children in Greek refugee camps. Il pomo d’oro plays charity concerts and offers workshops and music lessons according to the El Sistema method on a frequent regular basis in various refugee camps in Greece.

The name of the ensemble il pomo d’oro refers to Antonio Cesti’s opera from the year 1666. Composed to the wedding celebrations of Emperor Leopold I and Margarita Teresa of Spain, Il Pomo d’Oro was probably one of the largest, most expensive and most spectacular opera productions in the still young history of the genre. 24 different stage designs, a horse-ballet of 300 horses, a fireworks display of 73,000 rockets, numerous ‚special effects’- superlatives, which should make the Emperor’s court the highlight of cultural splendor in Europe.