Joyce DiDonato made her much anticipated -and belated- debut yesterday in Mexico City, for her recital debut she decided to start with some Obradors songs. Perhaps it was not too wise to choose Spanish songs for a Spanish speaking audience when you are not fluent in the language. Of course there were gorgeous sounds, and superb understanding of the music, but the texts didn´t come across as clear as they should. Infinitely better was Rossini´s Desdemona scena from his Otello. DiDonato caught to perfection the mood of the piece, it was an outstanding, deeply felt interpretation, and her Italian infinitely more idiomatic and clear than her Spanish (our "rr`s" are so difficult to master).
Then we got a little Beaumarchais trio, including Cherubino´s Voi che sapete, Susanna´s Deh vieni non tardar and Rosina´s inescapable Una voce poco fa. She was disarmingly funny in Cherubino´s aria, but kept an immaculate vocal line, -it was indecently gorgeous-. The difficult Susanna aria was also superb, but perhaps a tiny bit too high for her, and it was only to be expected that she was going to be brilliant in the Barbiere aria and brought down the house.
After the intermission she returned with a bravura aria from Hasse´s Cesare e Cleopatra, great of course, but if anything, "Piangeró la sorte mia", Cleopatra´s aria from Handel´s Giulio Cesare, was even more special and precious, I heard her do it 2 years ago in Carnegie Hall, and now there´s even more depth and pathos, a truly great performance. After that she did Reynaldo Hahn´s little Venice song cycle. It was so special, so intimate and charming, just lovely.
Her accompanist, David Zobel was celebrating his birthday yesterday, and most charmingly DiDonato invited us to sing Happy Birthday to him, which of course we did.
We got 2 encores: A Ginastera song, rather better than the Obradors, and the La Cenerentola rondó, sung with such brilliance and panache that she knocked our sox off.
It was an utterly unforgettable recital, by the singer that gets my vote as the greatest of our time.
