Sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP
Joyce DiDonato would like to thank the Pure Land Foundation for its generous support of her In War & Peace project. She would also like to thank Five Arts Foundation, as recommended by Helen Berggruen; Susan and John Singer; Helen and Peter Bing; The Howard and Sarah D. Solomon Foundation; and Marnie and Kern Wildenthal for their additional support.
Multi Grammy Award winner Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe. The
Kansas-born mezzo-soprano has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and as
a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and
Mozart, as well as through her wide-ranging discography. She is also acclaimed for the bel
canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti.
In demand on the concert and recital circuit, she has recently held residencies at
Carnegie Hall and London's Barbican Centre; toured extensively in South America, Europe,
and Asia; and appeared as a guest soloist at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms. Recent
opera highlights have included her first Charlotte in Werther at the Royal Opera
House under Sir Antonio Pappano; the title role in Maria Stuarda at the
Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, and Barcelona's Liceu; the title role in
Alcina on tour with The English Concert and Harry Bicket; and Marguerite in La
damnation de Faust with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle.
Ms. DiDonato opened her 2016-2017 season in a gala concert with the Seattle Symphony under
Ludovic Morlot; she also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti
and in recital with Philippe Jordan. Later this season, she will appear with the Berliner
Philharmoniker under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. On the opera stage, she makes her much
anticipated debut in the title role of Semiramide in a new production at the
Bayerische Staatsoper under Michele Mariotti; goes on tour with The English Concert and
Harry Bicket, performing the title role in Ariodante; returns to Strasbourg as
Dido (Les Troyens) under John Nelson; and reprises the role of Sesto (La
clemenza di Tito) under Mr. Nézet-Séguin in Baden-Baden. Ms. DiDonato makes her
Off-Broadway debut in White Rabbit Red Rabbit, the internationally acclaimed play
by Nassim Soleimanpour.
An exclusive recording artist with Erato / Warner Classics, Ms. DiDonato's Joyce and
Tony: Live from Wigmore Hall (with Antonio Pappano) won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best
Classical Vocal Album. Her other recordings include Stella di Napoli, a sumptuous
bel canto banquet that includes little-known gems alongside music by Bellini, Rossini, and
Donizetti. Her Grammy Award-winning Diva, Divo comprises arias for male and female
characters, celebrating the rich dramatic world of the mezzo-soprano. A retrospective of
her first 10 years of recordings entitled ReJoyce! The Best of Joyce DiDonato was
released in 2013. Other honors include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and
Recital of the Year awards, three German ECHO Klassik awards as Female Singer of the Year,
and induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Ms. DiDonato's most recent recording, In War & Peace: Harmony Through Music,
was released last month and is accompanied by a 20-city international tour. Special thanks
to the Pure Land Foundation (purelandfoundation.com) for its generous support of this
project.
Il Pomo d'Oro was founded in 2012 with a special focus on opera, but is equally committed
to instrumental performance in various forms. The musicians united in this group are among
the best to be found worldwide for authentic and vivid interpretation on period
instruments. They form an ensemble of outstanding quality, combining stylistic knowledge,
the highest technical skills, and artistic enthusiasm. Their collaboration with violinist
and conductor Riccardo Minasi led to an award-winning first recording; their second
recording, with Dmitry Sinkovsky as soloist and conductor, received a Diapason d'Or.
In 2012, Il Pomo d'Oro recorded three albums with three different countertenors:
Venezia with Max Emanuel Cencic, Bad Guys with Xavier Sabata, and
Arias for Caffarelli with Franco Fagioli--all under the direction of Mr. Minasi.
There is also a 2013 recording of Vivaldi's concertos for two violins, played and directed
by Mr. Minasi and Mr. Sinkovsky. In conjunction with Gondola, a book by American
writer Donna Leon, Il Pomo d'Oro recorded a collection of ancient Venetian barcaroles, sung
by Vincenzo Capezzuto. A compilation of arias from Handel's Agrippina--most of
them world premieres on CD--with Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg was released in 2015,
followed by Arie Napoletane, a collaboration with countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic
that was directed by Maxim Emelyanychev.
Il Pomo d'Oro has recorded four operas: Handel's Tamerlano, Partenope,
and Ottone; and Leonardo Vinci's Catone in Utica. Additional instrumental
recordings include Haydn's concertos for harpsichord and violin, co-directed by Mr.
Emelyanychev as harpsichord soloist and Mr. Minasi as violin soloist.
Il Pomo d'Oro performs in all of the most important venues and at all of the most
acclaimed festivals in Europe. In 2015, the ensemble accompanied Joyce DiDonato on her tour
of Asia and this season joins her on the recording and corresponding tour of In War
& Peace. There will also be tours of Handel's Partenope and
Rinaldo; concerts with Edgar Moreau, and Katia and Marielle Labèque; and return
visits to Carnegie Hall as part of La Serenissima: Music and Arts from the Venetian
Republic, a citywide festival in February.
Last January, Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev was appointed principal conductor of Il
Pomo d'Oro. In the future, the orchestra will also work with conductors Stefano Montanari
and George Petrou.
Maxim Emelyanychev is an outstanding representative of the rising generation of young
conductors. Born in 1988 to a family of musicians, he first studied conducting at the
Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory, before continuing his education in the conducting class
of Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, and in the
fortepiano and harpsichord class of Maria Uspenskaya.
He is a prizewinner of numerous competitions, among them the International Hans von Bülow
Piano Competition (2012), International Competition Musica Antiqua (2010), and
International Volkonsky Harpsichord Competition (2010).
Mr. Emelyanychev made his conducting debut at the age of 12 and has since conducted both
Baroque and symphonic orchestras. In addition to Il Pomo d'Oro, he leads the Novosibirsk
Musica Aeterna Ensemble, and is the creator and leader of the Veritas chamber orchestra.
Last season, he conducted Il Pomo d'Oro in an outstanding concert performance of Handel's
Tamerlano in Hamburg, Vienna, and Cologne, as well as at Versailles.
He regularly collaborates with such renowned artists as Riccardo Minasi, Max Emanuel
Cencic, Xavier Sabata, Julia Lezhneva, Sophie Karthäuser, Franco Fagioli, Dmitry Sinkovsky,
Alexei Lubimov, and Teodor Currentzis.
Mr. Emelyanychev's international career includes appearances with the Sofia Sinfonietta,
Sinfonia Varsovia, and Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, who invited him to conduct a
production of Don Giovanni at the Teatro de la Maestranza. He has also conducted the
Orquesta Nacional de España and the Real Filharmonía de Galicia.
Mr. Emelyanychev earned a Golden Mask--Russia's highest theater award--as harpsichordist
in a production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro by Perm Opera Theatre.
Studying classical ballet from an early age at the Teatro Colón in his native Argentina,
Manuel Palazzo has traveled the globe, participating in both modern and classical dance,
opera, theater, film, and TV. A regular at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as a featured
dancer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) and Teatro Real (Madrid), he has
collaborated with directors Sir David McVicar, Harold Prince, Laurent Pelly, and Robert
Lepage. Dance credits include collaborations with Caracalla Dance Theater (Beirut),
Belgrade National Theatre (Serbia), Lanònima Imperial (Barcelona), French Cultural Center
(Kinshasa), and Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires). Film and TV credits include Blood
Ties (directed by Guillaume Canet) and Boardwalk Empire (directed by Martin
Scorsese).
Coming from a musical and theatrical background, Ralf Pleger has been internationally
acclaimed for his innovative music films and film portraits of notable personalities. His
accolades include a Public Award at the Montreal World Film Festival and an ECHO Klassik
award. His film Wagnerwahn was nominated for an International Emmy Award.
Starring Joyce DiDonato in the title role, Mr. Pleger's latest cinematic
production--The Florence Foster Jenkins Story--was released earlier this year. The
film tells the unbelievable story of the "worst singer of all time" in a flamboyant mix of
drama and documentary.
Mr. Pleger studied musicology, art history, and Italian in Berlin and Milan. Freelancing
as a dramaturge, he contributed to various international opera productions by the
Staatsoper unter den Linden and the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, among others.
He simultaneously worked as an author and director for various film productions and
television broadcasters.
As a film director, Mr. Pleger has worked with internationally renowned artists from
various fields, including Daniel Barenboim, Plácido Domingo, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Teodor
Currentzis, Cameron Carpenter, Vivienne Westwood, and Donna Leon.
Mr. Pleger's staging of In War & Peace adds a new dimension to his long-term
artistic relationship with Ms. DiDonato. Together with the multifaceted opera singer and
lighting designer Henning Blum, he developed a concept that is based on suggestive lighting
to enhance the concert program with a contemporary, non-literal, yet cohesive narrative.
The challenge of reconciliation can be seen as one of the key inspirations for the
show.
Henning Blum is a freelance gaffer and lighting designer who resides in Berlin and
Hamburg. With a career in the film industry that spans 17 years, he has worked on more than
70 movies, including feature films for all German networks and ARTE with companies like UFA
Fiction, Network Movie, Constantin Film, and the Oscar-winning Wiedemann & Berg Film.
He also did the lighting for several movies, working twice with Fatih Akin, and
international cinematographers Sonja Rom and The Ngo Chau. In addition, Mr. Blum has
lighted 120 commercials and 30 music videos. His latest movie, The Florence Foster
Jenkins Story with Joyce DiDonato in the starring role, aired in cinemas across
Europe. He was also responsible for the lighting design of the artistic Tableaus
Vivantes. Mr. Blum studied at the HAW (University of Applied Sciences) in Hamburg and
is a member of the BVB, the union of lighting technicians in Germany.
Yousef Iskandar is a visual artist who works with video, photography, performance, and art
installations. He was born in Lebanon in 1983. Throughout his 10 years of experience, he
has worked in the art department of Yehya Saade's production house, Over Beirut. He also
designs and leads workshops across Europe. Mr. Iskandar is based in Berlin and Barcelona,
where he continues to experiment and play with his multidisciplinary artistic expression,
stretching borders and defying categories and restrictions.