New Classical Tracks: Star of Naples

Joyce DiDonato — Stella di Napoli (Erato 63656)

"My biggest aspiration when I was young and I was the girl with the hairbrush in the mirror, singing along to things … I think the only thing I really allowed myself to dream was to be a backup singer," says mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.


So how does a young girl from Prairie Village, Kan., become a superstar on the opera stage? "You know, I think I'm still asking myself that same question," she admits. "I did a very typical Midwestern thing growing up as a choral singer and in high school musicals. And I just immediately identified with the power of music. And I went to college to be a music educator. I thought I would be the cool high school choral director that I had when I was in high school. And it's a bit cliché to say, 'I got bit by the bug,' but that truly is what happened."

Joyce DiDonato isn't in Kansas anymore. In fact, you're more likely to find her in London, Paris or New York City, and two years ago she became the first opera singer to perform at the Grammy Awards. This month, she's excited to share her latest recording, Stella di Napoli.

"This is going to Naples, the birthplace of bel canto, which is what I've spent a good portion of my musical career on," DiDonato says. "And it's things that I'm passionate about. We wanted to shine a light on pieces that are not so well known and in particular composers that are not so well known. So we have Pacini, Mercadante, Valentini. And we're taking operas where we're familiar with the story but not this particular opera or music. So we have a Sappho story, we have the marriage of Lucia, we have a Sonnambulo by Valentini.

"So it's going to be characters we're familiar with but in a completely different musical context. And the idea is to really explore how powerful Naples was in such a creative-hotbed period. So Stella di Napoli comes from the title of an opera by Pacini — and it's 'Star of Naples'. And I thought, this is going to be fun. Let's bring some new music to light here."

Stella di Napoli also puts a little-known conductor in the spotlight. "One of the things that was so surprising and delightful about this recording is I worked with a young conductor, Riccardo Minazi. He's a violinist and he has played with Santa Cecilia in Rome and he also heads up Il Complesso Barroco in Il Pomo d'Oro — the Baroque group that I have played with a lot. And he is an aspiring conductor, but he hadn't done any projects. This was his first recording project. And his first foray into bel canto.

"And we met and I just had the instinct that this guy is really special. And it was a big risk to employ him for this project but I tell you … it was an amazing synergy. And he won the orchestra over in the first thirty seconds. I think the chemistry between myself and him and the orchestra is something really special."

Joyce DiDonato's signature role has been Rossini's La Cenerentola which she sang for 17 seasons with the Metropolitan Opera. On this recording, the flexibility of her voice is featured on the last opera Rossini composed for Naples, Zelmira. "So we do the finale aria from Zelmira from Rossini," DiDonato. "And this is another sort of big firework number written for Isabella Colbran — it's one of the arias I did not do on my Colbran disc. And it's thrilling. It's effervescent, it's champagne, it is sparkling and it is everything that you hope for Rossini. I had so much fun learning it."

There's also an aria from another composer who happened to be Rossini's best friend, Michele Carafa. His opera Le Nozze di Lammermoor is based on the same subject of Donizetti's opera. "It has everything you want from bel canto," DiDonato says. "It's this intimate, lilting, plaintive melody with harp accompaniment. And it's a different take on a mad scene for Lucia. It's haunting. And it was one of my favorite tracks on the recording, and I can't wait for people to hear it because it's completely unknown."

While she's in her zone building her voice and studying opera, Joyce DiDonato says she's just doing her thing. Every once in a while she does feel like maybe she has stepped into the land of Oz. "But if I allow myself to be a bit indulgent every once in a while," she says, "and I step outside and I think, 'No, seriously, how is this happening?' Or I'm on the plane and I get to go to London or Paris and I get to really see the world in a way that I never — honestly, never — dreamed of … I take those moments very much to heart so that I can make sure that I'm really present during all of this. So while on the one hand, while it does feel like a dream, on the other hand, I want to make sure that I know it also happens to be my reality at the same time."

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