Virtual Fundraiser Featuring Joyce DiDonato and More Announced at Dallas Opera

The Dallas Opera's annual spring gala has been reimagined as a special virtual fundraising event this year, and will stream on TDO's website beginning Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m.

This year's event, which is also available for on-demand viewing through June 4, stars mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, soprano Ailyn Pérez, countertenor John Holiday, and baritone Lucas Meacham in selections from The Barber of Seville and Great Scott, and in recital. Funds raised benefit The Dallas Opera's artistic and learning programs.

"This past year has presented a challenge at every turn," said Ian Derrer, The Dallas Opera's Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO. "But I am so very proud of the way our staff and artists have found creative solutions to each of those challenges. This weekend of fundraising efforts is one of those opportunities that we have to showcase our art and artists in new ways, and I'm grateful to Joyce DiDonato and all of our soloists who have agreed to participate. I hope our audiences here in Dallas, as well as those far and wide, enjoy these offerings."

Sunday, May 9 marks the premiere of the DVD of The Dallas Opera's 2015 world premiere performances of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Great Scott, starring Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, and Nathan Gunn. To celebrate the release, TDO hosts a one-time only premiere screening of the DVD at the Winspear Opera House, at 2 p.m. This event is free to TDO subscribers; general admission, available beginning April 11, is $20 for reserved, distanced seating. Visit the website for additional opportunities to thank our community's healthcare heroes.

The DVD will be available for purchase on amazon.com beginning April 16.

DiDonato then joins The Dallas Opera Orchestra conducted by the Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director Emmanuel Villaume on Monday, May 10, at 7 p.m. for "VIVA DIVA!"-a wide-ranging program that was rescheduled from November 2020, including two works with DiDonato: the orchestral version of Jake Heggie's song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire and Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre (The Death of Cleopatra), and Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture. Tickets range in price from $30-$325; audience capacity is limited.

Joyce DiDonato sang the 2012 premiere of Camille Claudel: Into the Fire for voice and string quartet; TDO Orchestra performs a newer orchestration. The seven-movement song cycle, with five poems by Gene Scheer representing five of Claudel's specific works, depicts the year 1913 during the heartbreaking life of the French sculptor, who reflects on her 10-year affair with Auguste Rodin and the trauma of their separation before being committed to an asylum. Heggie was deeply influenced by Ravel's music and Debussy's G-minor string quartet when writing of this tragic figure with "great beauty and emotional resonance" (The New York Times).

Written in 1829 when the composer was just 25 but not published until after his death, La mort de Cléopâtre depicts Cleopatra's suicide after she invokes the spirits of the pharaohs and wonders if she has lived up to the great rulers of the past. In performing this work, DiDonato has said, "I don't know how you could be a mezzo-soprano and not worship at the feet of Hector Berlioz. He has given us some of the greatest music ever written for our voices. It is poignant, rich, human, deeply feminine, vulnerable, empowering - each role feels like a treasure and a profound journey."

Visit dallasopera.org for more information. Tickets are available now for donors and subscribers and beginning April 11 for the general public, and can be purchased online or via phone, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 214.443.1000.

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