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Joyce DiDonato

Norman Lebrecht meets US mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, one of the world's great Rossini interpreters. She talks about her early life in Kansas and boucing back from rejections.

Norman Lebrecht meets the acclaimed American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. The sixth child of an Irish Catholic family in Prairie Village, Kansas, she married young and was almost thirty before anyone was prepared to back her talent. In the decade since then, she has taken on mezzo roles in Rossini and Handel with a wide-eyed zest that audiences find irresistible, and an openness that appears to be innate. The very model of a 21st-century communicator, Joyce DiDonato writes a chatty blog and decorates it with photographs that she snaps wherever she goes. She tells Norman Lebrecht about her early life in Kansas, her studies in Philadelphia and Houston, and how she bounced back from a string of rejections to become one of the world's great operatic stars.

45 minutes

Last on

Mon 16 Aug 2010 21:45

Broadcast

  • Mon 16 Aug 2010 21:45

Podcast