Feature | MDT Review – Prima Donna through the Ages

Joyce DiDonato

The Hong Kong Arts Festival usually takes place in February and March. Yet one of its most anticipated performances, an opera recital titled Drama Queens by the world-renowned American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the exuberant orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro, was staged in the first week of May. It was a unique musical journey from the 16th to 18th century, covering composers from the Italian and German traditions, including the composer of the first opera Claudio Monteverdi, the “red priest” Antonio Vivaldi, the musical reformer Christoph Gluck, the courtly Georg Friedrich Händel and the gallant Johann Adolf Hasse.
“We singers tend to boast that our careers offer the best form of psychotherapy in existence, for we are allowed to work out the bulk of our inner demons courtesy of the larger-than-life drama queens we encounter on the stage – those divine ladies who weep and love, moan and avenge more grandly and stylishly than in any other art form.”

Joyce DiDonato on the Drama Queens

As the title of the recital suggests, the prime donne of each opera, indeed their defining arie, were prominently featured and virtuously interpreted by the mezzo-soprano and orchestra. It was not about melodrama and overblown expressions, of which critics of opera often accuse it; it is concerned with the fundamental emotions, suffering, hope and yearning of human existence. With and through music, participants – whether composers, singers, musicians or spectators – lived through, vividly, the misfortunes of the drama queens.
If, as per Aristotelian theory, compassion is the indispensable element in great tragedies, mortal beings could well achieve emotional and spiritual catharsis through opera, or more precisely the fate and emotions of the prime donne, that touch our – the audience’s – inner self through the ages.

PROFILE | Joyce DiDonato

Born into an Irish-American family in Kansas, Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty) is one of the world’s leading operatic and lyric coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Having completed her vocal music education at university, her Damascene moment came in the form of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787), inspiring her to start an operatic career. After training at the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera, she went on to perform at some of the most prestigious venues around the world, including Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), De Nationale Opera (Amsterdam), Grand Théâtre de Genève (Geneva), Opéra Bastille (Paris), Royal Opera House (London), Teatro alla Scala (Milan) and Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna). She is admired for her compelling interpretation of Vincenzo Bellini, Hector Berlioz, Gaetano Donizetti, Georg Friedrich Händel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini.

Il Pomo d’Oro

PROFILE | Il Pomo d’Oro

Founded in 2012 by Gesine Lübben and Giulio d’Alessio, the orchestra is no less than a supernova in classical music. Bringing together some of the most talented and skilful young musicians from around the world, Il Pomo d’Oro is renowned for its authentic interpretation of period instruments, with a particular focus on recording, performing, rediscovering and reinterpreting operatic pieces-de-résistance from the Baroque to bel canto period. The orchestra has performed with Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, English tenor John Mark Ainsley, Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose and Spanish countertenor Xavier Sabata, in addition to Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli’s album Arias for Caffarelli (2013) and Croatian countertenor Max Emanuel Cenčić’s album Venezia – Opera Arias of the Serenissima (2013). By Jacky I.F. Cheong

Concert hall | Hong Kong Cultural Centre

The Concert Hall is located at Salisbury Road, the southwestern edge of Tsim Sha Tsui, or more precisely where the former Kowloon Station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway once stood. The venue was inaugurated in 1989 by the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana. Comprising 2,000 seats, the oval-shaped two-tiered Concert Hall is equipped with an adjustable acoustic canopy and curtains.

Hong Kong Arts Festival

Founded in 1973, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is an annual series of cultural events for genres ranging from classical music, Western opera, ballet, dance, drama, world music, Chinese music and Chinese opera. It has hosted performances by a stellar list of artists and groups, such as Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, Spanish tenor José Carreras and Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as well as Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris (France), Mariinsky Theatre (Russia), New York City Ballet (USA), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Netherlands) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK).