The 1st work is a cantata; the remaining works are either songs with piano or excerpts principally from musicals. Title from disc label. Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano ; Antonio Pappano, piano. Recorded live September 6 and 8, 2014, at Wigmore Hall, London. Booklet with program and biographical notes in English, French and German, and texts of Italian works with English translations (29 pages : color illustrations) inserted in container.
Contents:
CD 1. Arianna a Naxos / Joseph Haydn (19:47) -- Beltà crudele (4:45) ; La danza (3:10) / Gioachino Rossini -- I canti della sera. L'assiolo canta (2:20) ; Alba di luna sul bosco (1:05) ; Tristezza crepuscolare (2:39) ; L'incontro (4:05) / Francesco Santoliquido -- Non ti scordar di me! / Ernesto De Curtis (3:53) -- CD 2. Beautiful dreamer / Stephen Foster ; arr. David Krane (3:57) -- The siren's song (3:24) ; Go little boat (4:04) / Jerome Kern -- Lovely Jimmie / Havelock Nelson (3:29) -- Love in the dictionary / Celius Dougherty (2:46) -- Life upon the wicked stage / Jerome Kern (2:30) -- Lazy afternoon / Jerome Moross (2:45) -- Amor / William Bolcom (3:05) -- Food for thought / Heitor Villa-Lobos (2:13) -- Can't help lovin' dat man / Jerome Kern (3:19) -- My funny Valentine / Richard Rodgers (2:54) -- All the things you are / Jerome Kern (3:46) -- I love a piano / Irving Berlin (3:20) -- Over the rainbow / Harold Arlen (5:54).
Summary:
These two CDs were recorded live at the Wigmore Hall season-opener and at the repeat concert two days later. The first item on the programme was Haydn's dramatic cantata Arianna a Naxos (which, back in 2003, also launched DiDonato's debut recital at Wigmore Hall). As the Guardian wrote, DiDonato excelled in presenting "the abandoned heroine's progression from grief to fury with all her vocal skills to the fore and Antonio Pappano - rarely heard these days as an accompanist, but an absolute master of the art - seconding her every gesture." The Times described the interpretation as "incandescent ... Daring vocal pirouettes, vivid acting, wide dynamic swings, amazing breath control." Then came two songs by a composer who has played a defining role in Joyce DiDonato's operatic career - Rossini (her unforgettable collaboration with Pappano on Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden is captured on a Warner Classics DVD 5099969458194) - and four luscious late-Romantic numbers written in 1908 by the little-known Neapolitan composer Francesco Santoliquido.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.