Kathleen Battle Sings Purcell in 1982 Canadian Recital Debut

"I attempt from love's sickness to fly"
"Sweeter than roses"
"Man is for the woman made"

Kathleen Battle's 1982 Canadian debut recital at Pollack Hall in Montreal.
Lawrence Skrobacs, pianist.

Jonas Kaufmann Makes Recital Debut in Los Angeles

(Photo: Robert Millard/L.A. Times)

California has long been a beauty-obsessed state, thanks mostly to Hollywood and Beverly Hills, but one is surprised to see half of a recital review taken up by physical description: "The latest swoon-worthy tenor is Munich-born Jonas Kaufmann, who drove the audience nuts Friday at his U.S. recital debut sponsored by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Fans demanded no fewer than five encores....Kaufmann is tall, poised, curly-haired. He has chiseled looks and dramatic presence. His voice has a baritone’s dark coloring and weight, and he can use it for poetic effect. He knows that less is more, so he did not rely on extraneous gestures to punch up his program of lieder by Schumann and Strauss." How was the singing? Mostly good, but the rest of the review can be summed up in one direct quote, "One fears he may be living off his capital not his interest." [Source]

Joyce DiDonato Oozes "Charisma" at Carnegie Hall Recital

"At 42, she is in her prime and sounded it on Sunday, gliding bejeweled onto the stage in a black gown with bustle and plunging straight into “Berenice, che fai,” Haydn’s turbulent concert aria. Ms. DiDonato shaded every word with meaning, conveying the bereaved Berenice’s anguish with a warm, silvery voice that slid between mezza-voce despair and full-throttle grief, her penetrating high notes and earthy lows equally alluring." [Source]

PROGRAM:
Haydn: Berenice, che fai, Hob. XXIVa: 10
Rossini: “L’invito”; “La partenza”; “Le dodo des enfants”; “Chanson de Zora”
Chaminade: “Viens! mon bien-aimé!”; “Villanelle”; “Aubade”; “L’été”
Rossini: “Assisa al piè d’un salice…Deh, calma,” from Otello
Jake Heggie: The Breaking Waves (world premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
Buzzi-Peccia: “Lolita” (serenata spagnola)
Leoncavallo: “Serenata francese”
Di Chiara: “La spagnola”