Carnegie Hall+

Award-winning vocalist Joyce DiDonato has captivated audiences in a variety of venues, from the Metropolitan Opera to Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Known for her versatility across stage, screen, recital halls, and arenas, she has also made a significant impact at Carnegie Hall. Since her debut in 2002, she has headlined more than two dozen programs, consistently showcasing her dynamic presence and exceptional talent.

This summer, DiDonato expands her repertoire to another remarkable location. Coinciding with the recent 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Carnegie Hall+ has added Eden in Olympia, a concert program filmed among the ruins of Ancient Olympia.

In Eden, DiDonato is joined by the acclaimed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, performing a period-trotting set list that spans Gluck to Gustav Mahler to Rachel Portman. Based on her acclaimed 2022 concept album and world tour that included a stop at Carnegie Hall in April 2022, the concert pays tribute to humanity’s complex relationship with the natural world.

“They feel like family, a musical family for sure,” DiDonato told Carnegie Hall about her ongoing partnership with Il Pomo d’Oro. “Each time we perform together, it feels new and fresh.” This month, we take a closer look at this one-of-a-kind performer, whose enduring quest for novelty and inspiration is now on full display on Carnegie Hall+.

The sixth of seven children in her own, Irish American family, Joyce Flaherty was born in 1969 in Prairie Village, Kansas. Despite an early interest in musical theater, she discovered her passion for opera at Wichita State University, where she first studied to be a high school music teacher at the Academy of Vocal Arts. After winning several vocal competitions, she launched her professional opera career in the late 1990s.

From the start, DiDonato’s eclectic taste in musical styles has been her trademark. She believes opera is about “bringing truth and beauty and astonishment to people,” she told The New York Times—a philosophy evident in her broad choice of repertoire, from the titular role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Elena in Rossini’s La donna del lago to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. On Carnegie Hall+, subscribers can enjoy a more comedic side of her talent in a Barcelona production of Rossini’s Cinderella alongside magnetic tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

Often billed as a coloratura mezzo-soprano, DiDonato’s voice vaults over octaves and evokes deep emotion with ease. Following a 2013 performance of Rossini’s challenging cantata Giovanna d’Arco at Carnegie Hall, critic Alex Ross praised her agility and emotional depth, noting, “Such music requires agility in ornaments, trills, and rapid-fire runs. DiDonato executes these figures with such purposeful precision that they take on emotional weight, becoming structure rather than décor. There is a warmth in the voice that can intensify into fire.”

In performances like the virtuosic aria “Tanti affetti in tal momento” from La donna del lago, the pyrotechnic vocal skills can feel almost frenzied. Yet, even in these moments, DiDonato approaches her work with a reverence and depth that transforms each rendition into a profound emotional moment. “It’s not just for the sake of being impressive,” she explained to Ross. “It’s such a wafty, fine, silver-spun web of a line. It’s something shivering inside of you. The closer to perfection I can get it, the more thrilling it can be.”

But thrills and theatricality can often give way to a yearning for thought. DiDonato is equally celebrated for her scholarly approach to recital programs and master classes, which form the bedrock of her partnership with Carnegie Hall. Alongside performing with renowned ensembles and conductors, she has curated two of the Hall’s Perspectives series, led annual master classes for young opera singers in the Resnick Education Wing, and worked alongside middle school students as part of the Count Me In program. She has also contributed to the Hall’s Lullaby Project as well as the Musical Connections program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

DiDonato has also pioneered conceptual programs with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanychev. Her three-year tour of In War and Peace, conceived in response to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, merged singing and choreography for a ceremony that juxtaposed themes of conflict and serenity with Baroque works by Handel, Cavalieri, and Purcell. The concert was filmed live at the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona in June 2017 and is now available to Carnegie Hall+ subscribers.

More recently, DiDonato’s Eden in Olympia serves as a pressing reminder of ecological responsibility. Toured worldwide in 2022—including a stop at Carnegie Hall—the performance blends history, nature, and music. Directed by Olivier Simonnet and newly released on Carnegie Hall+, its concert film places DiDonato in Greece days before the torch ceremony for the Paris Olympics with children’s choirs from Greece and France, and ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro with Emelyanychev. The production delivers a powerful message of unity and renewal, capturing the very essence of her artistry.

“I get completely overwhelmed if I’m trying to solve world peace or climate change,” she told The New York Times on the eve of her Eden performance at Carnegie Hall. “But when I do little things, I’ve come to believe that it’s really the only way forward.”

Photography by Chris Singer, Chris Lee, and Stephan Talneau.