Joyce DiDonato Live in Concert

The Met’s pay-per-view series features the great American mezzo-soprano singing Baroque masterpieces and major works from the 19th and 20th centuries at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum in Germany, on Saturday, September 12, at 7:30pm CET/1:30pm ET

DiDonato will also give the world premiere of “I Dream a World,” a new work with music by Kenyatta Hughes, with text by Langston Hughes

Tickets, priced at $20, are now on sale on the Met’s website

New York, NY (September 2, 2020)— Celebrated American mezzo-soprano and multiple Grammy Award winner Joyce DiDonato will perform a live concert, titled “I Dream a World,” on Saturday, September 12, at 7:30pm CET/1:30pm ET, in Bochum, Germany, as part of the Met Stars Live in Concert series. The title of the program is taken from a new work that will receive its world premiere during this concert, with music by Kenyatta Hughes, with text from the Langston Hughes poem of the same name. The diverse three-part program also features Baroque masterworks by Handel and Monteverdi and major pieces by such composers as Berlioz and Mahler, as well as well-known songs such as “La vie en rose” and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The full program is below. The recital will be streamed live via the Met website and will then be available on demand for 12 days.

DiDonato will perform in a unique venue—the converted Jahrhunderthalle in Germany's Ruhr area, an imposing former industrial pavilion that has in recent years been used for theatrical events—accompanied by Carrie-Ann Matheson on piano and the chamber ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.

The concert space has been curated for this event by Belgian interior designer and antiques and art dealer Axel Vervoordt, with sculpture by Mexican contemporary artist Bosco Sodi, setting the stage for this multimedia experience.

Joyce DiDonato’s concert is the fifth of 12 concerts in the Met Stars Live in Concert series, featuring a lineup of some of opera’s leading artists performing in striking locations across Europe and the United States. The first four concerts presented tenor Jonas Kaufmann from Polling, Bavaria, on July 18; soprano Renée Fleming in Washington, D.C., on August 1; tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak in Èze, France, on August 16; and soprano Lise Davidsen in Oslo, Norway, on August 29. Davidsen’s concert remains on demand until September 9. The concerts are shot by multiple cameras, linked by satellite to a control room in New York City, where the host of the program, soprano Christine Goerke, is situated. Gary Halvorson, the Met’s award-winning director of the company’s Live in HD cinema transmissions, directs.

Tickets for each recital are $20 and can be purchased on the Met’s website at metopera.org, and the performances will be available for on demand viewing for 12 days following the live event. The programs can be viewed on your computer, mobile device, or home entertainment system (via Chromecast or AirPlay).

The Program

“Addio, Roma”
From Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea

Didon’s Final Scene
From Berlioz’s Les Troyens

“Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”
By Gustav Mahler

“Oh, Shenandoah”
Traditional

“As with rosy steps the morn”
From Handel’s Theodora

“Illustratevi, o cieli”
From Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria

“Dopo notte atra e funesta”
From Handel’s Ariodante 

“I Dream a World”
By Kenyatta Hughes, arranged by Craig Terry, with text by Langston Hughes

“Intorno all’idol mio”
From Cesti’s Orontea

“Voi che sapete”
From Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

“La vie en rose”
By Louiguy

“Canción al árbol del olvido,” Op. 3, No. 2
By Alberto Evaristo Ginastera

“You’ll Never Walk Alone”
From Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel 

Upcoming concert schedule (in Eastern time zones):

Please note that the Sondra Radvanovsky and Piotr Beczała concert, originally scheduled for September 26, has been postponed. A new date and location will be announced shortly.

October 10 at 1pm ET: Anna Netrebko, live from (location TBD)

October 24 at 1pm ET: Diana Damrau and Joseph Calleja, live from Malta (location TBD)

November 7 at 1pm ET: Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena, live from Zurich, Switzerland (location TBD)

November 21 at 1pm ET: Sonya Yoncheva, live from Berlin, Germany (location TBD)

December 12 at 1pm ET: Bryn Terfel, live from Wales (church location TBD)

December 19 at 1pm ET: Angel Blue, live from New York City (location TBD)