Top soprano Diana Damrau dedicates her Hong Kong debut to the celebration of love and romance
● The “Encore Series: An Evening with Diana Damrau” will mesmerise music lovers at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on May 10, 2023.
● Also featuring world-renowned bass Nicolas Testé, the “All for Love” recital will showcase lieder, French songs, operetta, and opera arias and duets.
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In her illustrious professional career spanning more than two decades, versatile German mega diva Diana Damrau has garnered accolades of superlatives, including ‘the world’s leading coloratura soprano.’ She has received the honour as Singer of the Year by Opernwelt, Opera News, International Opera Award and Gramophone Editor’s Choice.
Damrau’s upcoming debut in Hong Kong will include classical music inspired by the joy and sorrow of love and romance, composed by Duparc, Thomas, Strauss, Gounod, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi, as well as modern gems by Rodgers, Ross and Loewe. With some of them performed alongside her French husband Testé, audiences can expect songs brought to life with genuine intimacy, contrast and vitality. The couple’s performance will be accompanied by acclaimed French pianist Mathieu Pordoy.
The recital’s programme seeks to unleash Damrau’s full range of exceptional techniques and artistry in expressing emotions. For instance, she will deliver Duparc’s capture of the spirit of poems in Chanson triste, L’Invitation au voyage, and La vie antérieure. In the selected work by Richard Strauss, regarded as an ingenious composer for ‘the voice,’ Damrau will convey the wooing of object of desire in Ständchen, Op.17, No.2, and the intensity of love in Wiegenlied, Op.41, No.1. Audiences will also be treated to her superb delivery of Bellini’s Casta diva, from Norma, and the celebration of power of love in Lehár’s Liebe, du Himmel auf Erden, from Paganini.
Critical acclaim
Damrau has won the stamps of approval by critics around the world. “Soprano Diana Damrau’s wonderful vocal lines,” says Guardian; “The German soprano’s virtues are well in evidence. There’s no doubting the integrity and intelligence of her performances,” notes Gramophone; and “With meticulous coloring of her buoyant, silky soprano, Ms. Damrau brought out a wealth of different emotional states … she was able to conjure up feelings from fear to head-in-the-clouds dreaminess and aching sensuality,” says The New York Times.
Critics are also impressed that Damrau has impeccable diction and vocal gleam from top to bottom, with scarcely a weakness. Her vivacious stage presence has graced the world’s leading opera houses. Damrau has played a variety of leading roles, unleashing unparalleled lyricism and beauty. Her vast repertoire includes Queen of the Night from Die Zauberflöte with Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper, title roles in La Traviata with Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera and Opéra National de Paris, and Roméo et Juliette with Teatro alla Scala and Metropolitan Opera, among many others. In 2022, she made her debut as Gräfin Madeleine in Capriccio at Bayerische Staatsoper. She has also performed contemporary works for the opera stage in roles written especially for her.
As a highly sought-after performer of the lieder repertoire in the concert and recital circuit, Damrau has held residencies in major cities in Europe such as the Barbican Centre in London, toured extensively in South America and Asia, and performed in the New Year’s Eve concerts with Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko. After having performed Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in the most renowned concert halls in Europe alongside tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch in 2018, the three toured again in 2022 with love songs by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
Damrau has done recordings exclusively for Warner/Erato, which encompass not only classical music, but also well-known melodies from operettas, musicals, and films. She won the prestigious classical music awards Opus Klassik Awards (formerly ECHO Klassik Awards) in 2011 and 2014.
Nicolas Testé
The enchanting evening with Damrau will be delivered alongside bass Nicolas Testé. Well-known opera critic Christopher Corwin has described Testé’s performance in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, “Nicolas Testé shone as the handsome, implacable high priest Nourabad. His lean, forceful bass-baritone rang out with such security and idiomatic French style …”
Testé perfected his singing at the training programmes of the Opéra National de Paris and the Centre de Formation Lyrique, then in 1998 he won second prize at the “Voix Nouvelles” compétition. He appears regularly at leading European opera houses, including Deutsche Oper Berlin, De Nederlandes Opera, and such music festivals as Glyndebourne Festival and Montpellier Festival. He has collaborated in concert performances with ensembles, including Orchestre National de France and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Alongside Damrau, Testé will sing Bellini’s O amato zio, o mio secondo padre!, from I Puritani. He will also perform Verdi’s Ella giammai m’amò, from Don Carlos and Tchaikovsky’s Lyubvi vsye vozrasti pokorni, from Eugene Onegin.
The two artists will be accompanied by French pianist Mathieu Pordoy. As a specialist in French opera, Pordoy is regularly invited by opera houses, such as Opéra-Comique in Paris, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Grand-Théâtre de Luxembourg.
Do seize this rare opportunity and book tickets for “An Evening with Diana Damrau” to get mesmerised by her exceptional vocal delicacy in a live performance.
An Evening with Diana Damrau
Date: May 10, 2023 (Wednesday)
Time: 8pm
Venue: Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Tickets Price: $800, $680, $560, $420, $280
Performers: Diana Damrau (Soprano)
Nicolas Testé (Bass)
Mathieu Pordoy (Piano)
Nicolas Testé (Bass)
Mathieu Pordoy (Piano)
Programme Details:
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/programs_1479.html
Ticketing Details: https://www.urbtix.hk/event-detail/9586/