Joyce DiDonato & the DR Symphony Orchestra

DR Symphony Orchestra

Joyce DiDonato can rightly be described as a phenomenon. Her artistic format has secured her a place among music's very greatest, while at the same time her inspiring views on creativity have placed her centrally in discussions about the role of culture in society.

DiDonato has been described by The New Yorker as “perhaps the most powerful female singer of her generation”. She interprets music with great emotional depth, and this concert with the DR Symphony Orchestra embraces both the monumental and the introspective.

Hector Berlioz's interpretation of Cleopatra's death is an intense, coherent musical drama with text by Vielliard. Here Cleopatra stands alone with her fate, and we follow her in the final, poignant minutes of her life -- from grief and rage at the loss of Antony to the proud decision to choose death over Roman humiliation.

With her colorful orchestration and psychological acuity, Berlioz paints a raw and present portrait of a ruler who dies as she lived: uncompromisingly.

Contrasting this is Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, where the gaze is turned inwards in a series of finely chiselled songs about love, loss and silence. Here, DiDonato unfolds his particular ability to reconcile textual closeness and vocal intensity.

At the concert, DiDonato will be joined by the in-demand French conductor Fabien Gabel, who leads the DR Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz's sparkling work and Mahler's deeply moving song cycle -- accompanied by Strauss's Rosenkavalier Suite and Ravel's seductive Bolero.