Traquen’Art presents EDEN
a musical ode to Nature

Joyce DiDonato and the il Pomo d’Oro ensemble in concert at Place des Arts’ Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

January 11, 2023

With an original concept of a “recital set in space” and a unifying theme that brings together eleven composers and four centuries of music focused on nature, EDEN, presented by Traquen’Art, is adopting a dedicated environmental stance. On Sunday, January 29, Joyce DiDonato is returning to Montreal audiences at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts following her last appearance in November 2019 with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain.

EDEN will no doubt speak to our world now, and there is no better voice for this than Joyce DiDonato. – Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Celebrating the majesty, power and mystery of nature through striking and evocative music and theatrical effects, Eden is certainly Joyce DiDonato’s most important and ambitious project to date. Featuring long-time collaborator il Pomo d’Oro, this concert is in complete harmony with the concerns of our time, sending the audience into the heart of the surrounding world and showing the strength and fragility of nature.

EDEN - Joyce Didonato et l'ensemble d'Italie Il Pomo D'oro avec la participation du Chœur des enfants de Montréal

“Joyce DiDonato is a superstar for reasons far beyond her exceptional voice. She has an innate ability to draw people in, and her collaborative spirit is why I consider her the ultimate colleague. I’ve always admired Joyce’s creativity, and her ability to keep her finger on the pulse of our society is shown by the number of innovative projects she creates. EDEN will no doubt speak to our world now, and there is no better voice for this than Joyce DiDonato.” – Yannick Nézet-Séguin

The EDEN project

“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

‘EDEN, a bold and evocative project that celebrates the majesty, power and mystery of nature.’

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 which appears on the Erato label is in nominations at the next Grammy Awards with a tour – to happen from 2022 to 2024, in more than forty-five halls on all five continents. It features an innovative educational programme with multiple partnerships.

Contact between humans and nature

By re-establishing contact with nature through a repertoire ranging from the Baroque era to the 21st century, DiDonato brings us illustrious composers to be rediscovered from the 17th (Giovanni Valentini, Biagio Marini, Francesco Cavalli, Mario Uccellini), 18th (George Frideric Handel, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Josef Mysliveček), 19th (Gustav Mahler), 20th (Charles Ives, Aaron Copland) and 21st centuries (Academy award-winning British composer Rachel Portman), whose works address the relationship between humans and nature.

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 with Il Pomo d’Oro 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.

Ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro

Joyce DiDonato will be accompanied by the original instrumental ensemble il Pomo d’Oro, under the direction of violinist Zefira Valova, and actor Manuel Palazzo in a staging by French director Marie Lambert-Le Bihan. The Chœur des enfants de Montréal will have the opportunity to join Joyce DiDonato on stage in Montreal on January 29 for a song, answering, in its own way, the question: “And if trees could sing…?

Citations dans les médias

« C’est LE concert à ne pas manquer cet hiver, à Montréal et à Québec : l’incomparable Joyce DiDonato et son spectacle Eden… »
– Ludwig van Montréal

« … la cantatrice américaine veut à la fois faire découvrir de grands airs du répertoire tout en défendant la planète. Une réussite. »
– Le Figaro

« À travers la musique, le texte des chansons et une mise en scène évocatrice, le spectacle célèbre la puissance et la beauté de la nature, tout en soulignant les maux de l’humanité dans sa destruction de la nature et la discorde sociétale. C’est le cri de ralliement personnel et musical de DiDonato. »
– Ludwig van Toronto

« Joyce DiDonato veut que la musique construise un paradis pour aujourd’hui. »
– The New York Times

« La voix de DiDonato est vraiment l’une des grandes merveilles de la nature : lumineuse, soyeuse, flexible, pleine de couleurs et de nuances expressives… »
– NPR