NATIVE DAUGHTER: A Colorful Homecoming for DiDonato at the Kauffmann Center
The Kauffmann Center’s Helzberg Hall has certainly seen its share of impressive performances throughout this auspicious inaugural season, and last night’s Symphony spectacular proved to be one of the more ambitious and successful of these endeavors to date. For the first time, the hall itself became attuned to the program as careful synchronization of colorful lighting enhanced the nuances of each work. The Kansas City Symphony, manifestly in top form, outdid itself in Giuseppe Verdi’s Overture to La Forza del Destino as well as the 2005 Jake Heggie song cycle The Deepest Desire. And Kansas City’s own dazzling mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato graced Friday night’s enthusiastic audience with the same redolent, mesmerizing voice that has garnered her an estimable international reputation.
Opening with sinister E octaves, complete with exaggerated rests that lent an additional air of mystery and foreboding, the Symphony’s rendition of the Forza del Destino overture rode a current of alternating agitation and tenderness so typical of Verdi’s work. The memorably tuneful solos in flute, oboe and clarinet in the Andantino were well-rendered with minimal rubato, befitting the section’s tense and precarious atmosphere. The brass section’s “heartbeats” also enjoyed a moment in the forefront, despite a tendency in many performances to obscure them. Stern’s descriptive, assured direction tended in some places toward the excessively florid; a lesser orchestra could have suffered from ensemble issues as a result.
After the Verdi, the radiant DiDonato strode onto the stage to the accompaniment of a warm homecoming reception from the Kauffmann audience. She began humbly with Rossini’s rarely-performed Giovanna d’Arco Cantata, which she sang with a warbling, hushed tone that was unspeakably lustrous; her low-register strengths were showcased fully and prominently as well. DiDonato commands virtually unmatched control over her velvety vocals, having developed the capacity to alter vibrato levels and dynamics dramatically – often to the extent of evoking a skilled string player’s gritty sul ponticello or muted con sordino.Although the Symphony did yeoman’s work in supporting her, particularly in the most delicate of pianissimos, the balance between soloist and orchestra suffered in several places. During the last, rapturous stanza (“Corre la gioia”), DiDonato exhibited more than a few similarities to Cecilia Bartoli’s celebrated portrayals of Rossini heroines – enough to make one wonder if she might yet take up the great mezzo’s mantle for a newer generation.
DiDonato returned with a work that helped catapult her to worldwide renown: The Deepest Desire, Jake Heggie’s setting of four poems by activist Sister Helen Prejean. Keeping with the extravagant atmosphere of the concert, the composer himself was present on Friday night and gave an enlightening introduction to the work and its connection with DiDonato, for whom the current version was written. The piece opens with alternating flute solos calling for unorthodox technique reminiscent of that of iconic flautist Ian Anderson; orchestral lines flowed smoothly throughout the work, giving way to similar textures in DiDonato’s voice. The soloist handled the large, unusual leaps with casual alacrity, while the Symphony did much to ensure that the considerable and daunting difficulties in the score did not become readily apparent.
The ample orchestration with which Richard Strauss has been inexorably linked was on prominent display in the Symphony’s final selection of the evening: the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier. Although the contrasts in mood and dynamic did not seem as prevalent as they were in the previous program, the work’s sweeping romantic lines were rendered with a grace that proved approachable and familiar. The suite provided the Symphony’s new concertmaster, Juilliard graduate Noah Geller, with plenty of opportunities to introduce his strengths: he employed a phenomenally delicate yet well-projecting sound for much of the work. The Symphony painted the final, bombastic section of the suite with a broad, colorful brush, bringing most of Helzberg Hall’s audience to a rousing standing ovation. As an encore, DiDonato returned to the stage for an appropriately Kansas Citian encore: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Her sensitively rendered operatic version betrayed the joy that she had earlier communicated to Friday night’s audience about returning home at long last – while the reception she received at the evening’s conclusion, in turn, betrayed the audience’s joy at having her back.
– Erin Hales
