Part of Il Pomo d’Oro’s current European tour, this concert with Maxim Emelyanychev carried with it something of the air of a grand star occasion thanks to Joyce DiDonato’s appearance as Purcell’s Dido, a role her many admirers have long waited to hear her perform. In the event, however, she was effectively the leader of a fine ensemble, as it proved to be an evening of superb singing across the board, both solo and choral, as well as a remarkable vindication of the work chosen as Dido and Aeneas’s companion piece, Giacomo Carissimi’s brief but devastating oratorio Jephte, written around 1650.
DiDonato was, as one might expect, magnificent in a role that suits her down to the ground, probing Dido’s desire and anguish with singing of characteristically understated subtlety. An initial darkness in her tone, first heard at the mention of being “pressed with torment”, gradually and almost imperceptibly brightened as Dido’s love for Aeneas (Andrew Staples) grew, only to return at the close with wrenching finality as she greeted death as “a welcome guest”. Equally telling was her fearsome way with the outburst of rage and wounded pride with which she dismisses him, even as she knows that doing so will destroy her.
