Joyce DiDonato Wants Music To ‘Build A Paradise For Today’

What are the duties of the artist towards society? While Russia invades Ukraine and racism persists in the United States, this age-old question still remains relevant. And the list of issues on which to take a political stand, whether by choice or by proposal, is getting longer and longer.

received by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato an album and concert program in his latest project called “Paradise,” is climate change.

Using a wider repertoire than DiDonato typically focuses on the Baroque – Wagner, Mahler and Rachel Portman In counterpoint with Cavalli, Gluck and Handel, the program reflects what this star singer sees as humanity’s disconnection from nature. If the result is more mystical than activist, DiDonato’s aim remains, as his short notes put it, to “build a paradise for today” for his listeners.

He has been touring since the beginning of March and has been to Carnegie Hall. Saturday Concerts with the period instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, led by conductor Maxim Emelianychev, are staged by Marie Lambert-Le Bihan. At the performances, plant seeds are distributed to the audience, and as part of an educational initiative, local children’s choirs, some ongoing, some set up for the event, sing a song called “Seeds of Hope.” blended taken from lyrics and melodies written by 11-13 year old students at a school near London last year by teacher Mike Roberts.

In an interview, DiDonato chose a favorite page from Portman’s “First Morning on Earth” to talk about his project and the problems it raises. Gene Scheer. Here are edited excerpts from the speech.

What were the origins of this project?

It came about five years before my last major project with Il Pomo d’Oro. “In War and Peace.” For about two years, I struggled to reconcile how to stage climate change in a way that would get people to come and experience it. I’m basically an optimistic person, and I think my greatest strength is to encourage people to relax and have hope, which is hard to do when you’re looking at a very dire situation.

Naively, it falls into the category of a disconnection from me to you and from me to the world I live in: when I look at music and the natural world; I see harmony; I see balance; I see all kinds of forces working together to create an ecosystem, to create a symphony, to create an environment where everything has a chance to flourish. So I married those two, and I invite you to say it really simply: What seeds are you planting on your balcony with your words, your actions, your tweets?

You start the program by singing the trumpet portion of Ives’ “The Unanswered Question”. How did you choose the repertoire?

We knew it had to start out mystical and magical. Ives is endless, but you have this persistent question that keeps coming back and you don’t have an increasingly complex and chaotic answer. I don’t know of anything that sums up the 21st century more accurately than that.

This piece was on Gene’s mind when he wrote the poem for “The First Morning on Earth.” The string has language without question marks is a hyperlink from ive’s. In Mahler’s “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft” we hope to show what it is to be fully connected with nature, which is certainly what is in Handel’s Ombra mai fu, but we also hope to show fragmentation, complete disconnection from nature. The nature that Myslivecek warned about. In Cavalli’s “Piante ombrose” we feel a deep sense of desolation and despair. The answer finally comes in Mahler and Wagner and Handel.

What do you admire about Rachel Portman’s music mainly for movies?

It wasn’t on my radar as a composer but his name came from a few different sources. i listened to it “Leaves and Trees” and it was clear that he had a very personal connection to the natural world.

I certainly wouldn’t classify what it gave us as cinematic, but it feels great to try to create the nurturing and serene side of nature. There is some uneasiness as the singer has not yet learned to speak this natural language mentioned in the text, but the language is present in the flute from the beginning.

There’s something comforting about that first bird call you hear in the morning. You went to bed reading all the headlines and you hear the bird just before you pick up your phone to see the horrors of the day. There is something primitive in us that says, “Well, here comes another day.”

The Portman song ends with “Teach me to sing notes that bloom like the shadow of a leaf/Should have done nothing but feel the sun”. This seems to imply that music can’t do much in the world, but you write that the album is a “call to action.” What can your audience really do in the face of climate change?

I personally think they can do extraordinary things, but extraordinary things are at the local level. I get totally overwhelmed when I try to solve world peace or climate change. But when I did small things and knew that sounded so naive, I came to believe that it was really the only way to move forward.

Literally, the call to action on this is sowing seeds. We give seeds to every concert that comes and if everyone takes a pot of soil and puts it in and gives some water, we will have planted thousands of plants during this tour.

Another big part of this project is planting the seeds of music for children. I don’t know of any more effective ways to attract and empower children than with choral music. This is one of the practical ways this project calls people to action.

So what do you think the role of an artist should be in politics?

I think some artists are embracing the more human aspects and some are just called to get through the day and do their best – and I think it’s all right. You can’t put a stamp on an artist and say, “Since you call yourself an artist, now you have to do X, Y, and Z.” But you also cannot argue that art and politics are not intertwined.

I don’t think we can make a comprehensive statement on what artists should and shouldn’t do, but if they want to talk about politics and want to use their music as it’s been done for centuries, then it’s allowed. do this.

You want to convey your message clearly to as many people as possible, but you travel this program across five continents. Did this project make you question the priorities of your industry?

Of course, I want people to take care of the environment, and I take a plane to travel the world. But for people who can afford the tickets and move on to the next one, I don’t think just giving a 90-minute car concert is enough. That’s why we leave a green memory in the hands of everyone who comes to the concert. I’m thinking more deeply about the impact that joining a world-class artist on stage will have on these kids.

Of course, we find more ways to travel on land if possible, and we find ways to carbon offset. I know it’s not a perfect solution. The biggest thing is that the impact we leave behind should be lasting.