EDEN – Joyce DiDonato
and Il Pomo d’Oro Ensemble
A stunning and evocative project that celebrates the majesty, power and mystery of Nature
December 20, 2022
As part of the world tour, Traquen’Art is proud to present Joyce DiDonato’s audacious project, EDEN, with the Italian orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro, at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, on Sunday, January 29, 2023, at 4 pm.
A musical ode to Nature
Celebrating the majesty, power and mystery of nature through striking and evocative music and theatrical effects, this breathtaking tour de force by multi-award-winning Joyce DiDonato takes us on an emotional journey which intends to reconnect us to the strength and fragility of nature while pushing us to explore our place within the marvellous and kaleidoscopic world that surrounds us.
Through music, song text and evocative staging, the show celebrates the power and beauty of nature, while underscoring the ills of humanity in its destruction of nature and societal discord. It serves as DiDonato’s personal and musical rallying cry.” – Ludwig van Toronto
With a voice “nothing less than 24 karat gold”, according to the Times (London, UK), mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is not only one of the finest singers in the world of opera, but one of its most theatrical and imaginative.
Travelling seamlessly through four centuries of music from Gluck, Handel and Cavalli to Mahler, Ives with a new commission from Academy Award-winning British composer Rachel Portman, Joyce DiDonato will be accompanied by the original instrumental ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, under the direction of violinist Zefira Valova, actor Manuel Palazzo and the Chœur des enfants de Montréal conducted by Léa Moisan-Perrier, in a staging by French director Marie Lambert-Le Bihan.
‘Joyce DiDonato takes us on an emotional journey that challenges us to explore our place in the wonderful, kaleidoscopic world around us.’
The Eden project is a multiform initiative in which music, theatre and education are in close relation in order to bring about a reflection on the link each and every one of us maintains with nature. This project, produced under the Erato label, is in nominations at the next Grammy Awards, with a tour from 2022 to 2024 in more than forty-five halls on all five continents. It features an innovative educational programme with multiple partnerships.
With EDEN, the American singer hopes the impact of the project will grow in the long term and expand more and more to other important areas.
“Welcome to the starting point of EDEN – a journey that I hope will inspire you, challenge you, instill you with hope, and invite you to connect more deeply to the perfect, natural world around and within you. We will pose questions, look for answers, invite you to take action, offer you moments to go inwards, and bring you along as we engage with young people across the globe both in nature and in song. It’s ambitious, to be sure. But isn’t now a wonderful moment to be ambitious? If not now… well, when?” – Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato
American mezzo-soprano joyce DiDonato receives rave reviews wherever she performs, not only for her virtuosity but also for her engaging personality, positive attitude and ease of interpersonal communication.
While she has been heard in roles in operas by Handel and Mozart and in be canto masterpieces, she has also performed in works by contemporary American composers such as Jake Heggie’s Great Scott and Dead Man Walking, Tod Machover’s Resurrection and Mark Adamo’s Little Women.
‘DiDonato’s voice is truly one of nature’s great wonders: luminous, silken, flexible, full of colors and expressive shadings…’’ – NPR
Metropolitan Opera audiences have seen her in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Count Ory, La Cenerentola and La donna del lago, as well as the pastiche The Enchanted Island, Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Bellini’s Norma, Massenet’s Cendrillon and Handel’s Agrippina.
In addition to numerous audio and video recordings, including the critically acclaimed recording of Berlioz’s rarely performed and recorded opera Les Troyens, she has released thematic discs on the Erato/Warner label, including Furore: Mad Scenes from Handel operas, Diva Divo, Drama Queens, Stella di Napoli, and In War & Peace: Harmony through Music.
Her album Eden, which is the subject of this concert, won the Opus Klassik Award for Best Solo Vocal Recording in 2022 and is nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album at the upcoming Grammy Awards. The varied repertoire explored in this concert focuses on the theme of nature and the human connection to it.
Il Pomo d’Oro
Founded in 2012, the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro takes its name from a grand opera written in 1666 by Antonio Cesti. It is dedicated to the performance of music from the Baroque and Classical periods on period instruments. Since 2016, it has been led primarily by Maxim Emelyanychev, who is also the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Concert artist Zefira Valova leads the orchestra in various projects.
The ensemble’s discography includes recordings with today’s leading countertenors, such as Jakub Józef Orliński (Facce d’amore, Anima sacra, Anima aeterna), as well as with renowned sopranos such as Emőke Baráth (Voglio cantar) and Lisette Oropesa (Ombra compagna). He also collaborates closely with Joyce DiDonato, including a recording of Handel’s Agrippina and her discs In War & Peace and Eden.
Zefira Valova
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she received her master’s degree from the National Academy of Music, Zefira Valova specialized in baroque violin at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Lucy van Dael. Initially a concertmaster in various orchestras in her native country, where she is among the founders of the Sofia Baroque Art Festival, she has held the same position with the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro since 2015. She also collaborates with ensembles such as the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She plays on an instrument by Lorenzo and Tomaso Carcassi (Florence, 1760), made available to her by the Jumpstart Jr. Foundation (Amsterdam).
Manuel Palazzo
A choreographer of Argentinean origin, Manuel Palazzo began his ballet studies at a very early age at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires). He regularly collaborates with the Metropolitan Opera and performs as a dancer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) and the Teatro Real (Madrid). Among the directors he has worked with are Sir David McVicar, Harold Prince, Laurent Pelly and Robert Lepage.
Listen to Joyce DiDonato’s EDEN on Spotify
EDEN
Joyce Didonato and the Italian ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro
with the participation of the Chœur des enfants de Montréal
Sunday, January 29, 2023 – 4 pm.
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier | Place des Arts
TICKETS
Tickets are on sale:
MONTREAL
Place des Arts
175 Ste-Catherine Street West
placedesarts.com
514 842-2112 – 1 877 641-6040
QUEBEC CITY
Palais Montcalm
January 30, 2023 – 7:30 pm
Presented by the Club musical de Québec
995 Place d’Youville
clubmusicaldequebec.com
418 641-6040 – 1 866 842-2112
Images: Courtesy of Traquen’Art
Traquen’Art has an impressive track record with more than 600 concerts in music and other forms of performing arts. A rich and varied programming, presenting internationally renowned artists on different Quebec stages.
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