2018 release. Recorded live at London's celebrated Wigmore Hall, this captivating recital by Joyce DiDonato and the Brentano Quartet was conceived around Jake Heggie's song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, a work written for DiDonato - she describes it as "one of most moving projects I've ever been part of". Songs by Debussy and Strauss and a quartet movement by Guillaume Lekeu complete the program, which prompted the Financial Times to write that "the beauty and range" of DiDonato's singing "are surely now at their impressive peak."

Julia Bullock, Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef Orlinski star in Katie Mitchell’s thrilling new production of Handel’s Theodora in an alternative modern-day reality, Theodora, a religious fundamentalist, plots for the resistance against the Roman occupation. But when her secret plan to destroy the Roman embassy is discovered, she learns the true brutality of her oppressors. Not heard in Covent Garden since the 18th Century and sung in the original English libretto by Thomas Morell, Theodora is a tour de force for soloists and chorus alike, with ensembles, duets and arias of profound depth and beauty. This new interpretation, conducted by Baroque specialist Harry Bicket, shines a new, feminist light on the story.

REFERENCE RECORDINGS proudly presents a landmark recording, the first commercial project to feature Joel Thompson's music exclusively, which brings together this ascendant composer and the Kansas City Symphony led by Michael Stern. The career of composer Joel Thompson has seen a meteoric rise since the premiere of his breakout choral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed in 2015. Each of it's seven movements sets to music the last words of an unarmed Black man before he was killed. Joining them are some of the most important performers of today focused on the same crucial topics: cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and the Sphinx Organization's vocal ensemble Exigence, led by Eugene Rogers. This is powerful music of profound insight and uncompromising conviction, brought to life by the passion and artistry of eminently skilled collaborators.

Premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2022 - with Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming and Kelli O'Hara as it's stars - Kevin Puts's The Hours was praised by The New York Times as "sincere and persuasive... fervent... and soaringly lyrical". The opera returns to the Met's schedule in May 2024. Based on both the award-winning 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry and the original novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours interweaves characters and events from three different periods of the 20th century. Joyce DiDonato, who takes the pivotal role of writer Virginia Woolf, says that: "Even though it deals with death head-on, the piece is life-affirming and tells a timeless story. The characters' struggles are shared universally, and by highlighting them through the different personalities and periods, hopefully everybody can find a part of themselves in the story."

This audio recording showcases the opera The Hours, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, which played to sold-out audiences at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City during it's world-premiere staged production last season. Featuring a libretto by Greg Pierce, adapted from Michael Cunningham's acclaimed novel and inspired by Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the powerful story concerns three women from different eras who each grapple with their inner demons and roles in society. Joyce DiDonato (interpreting the role of Virginia Woolf) is joined by Renée Fleming as Clarissa Vaughan and Kelli O'Hara as Laura Brown, among others in this superstar cast, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Séguin.

The collaborative efforts, the mutual emulation and inspiration of Sir Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome have spanned 18 years, led to one of the world's greatest and most versatile virtuoso ensembles and to acclaimed live and studio recordings showcasing an eclectic selection of symphonic and choral music. Their repertoire features already legendary performances of Verdi's Requiem and Quattro pezzi sacri. In addition, their recording of Bruckner's 8th Symphony features here for the very first time! This box brings together all the recordings that the British conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (b.1959) made with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the years from 2005 to 2022 for Warner Classics.

Five superb singers - Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Paul-Antoine B�nos-Djian, Michael Spyres and John Chest - portray the characters in Handel's Theodora under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev, Chief Conductor of the instrumentalists and choral singers of Il Pomo d'Oro. An elevated and moving oratorio, Theodora tells the story of Christian martyrs in ancient Antioch under Roman occupation. Handel considered it among his best works. This recording was made at the end of a concert tour that visited Vienna, Milan, Paris, Luxembourg and Essen. "An evening of top-flight singing of a kind that is only rarely experienced," was how one German reviewer summed up the performance, while in France it resulted in "a state of bliss".

EDEN is an invitation to return to our roots. It is an overture to engage with the sheer perfection of the world around us, to consider if we are connecting as profoundly as we can to the pure essence of our being. It is a clarion call to contemplate if our collective suffering isn't perhaps linked to the aching separation from something primal within and around us. This is a vivid musical exploration through the centuries to remember and to create a new EDEN from within. - Joyce DiDonato