Joyce DiDonato: Singing in a choir is the perfect blueprint for me
OperaThis week’s guest on David Krauss’s Speaking Soundly is the stellar mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who talks about audiences… in front of a live audience.
‘You have to prove yourself every time,’ she says. ‘There is a sense of dread, sometimes. There is a relief (when the applause comes) and you get flooded with gratitude. You go to the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires … that is an audience that has heard it all, they know it all, and they are saying we love you, but you better sing tonight.’
Both talk about going out to perform in front of a parent who is dying.
Listen here.
for me, singing in a school chorus was the perfect blueprint for a medical career as ENT surgeon; many of my patients are opera singers. I knew early on a career in classical music was not realistic unless you have wealthy and indulgent parents.