Denyce Graves accompanied by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Tuesday 3 December sees the first ever performance in the Czech Republic by the world-class American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. The concert will be hosted by the Prague State Opera and the singer will be accompanied by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR), conducted by Rastislav Štúr. The programme will also feature a guest appearance by flautist Massimo Mercelli.
Denyce Graves is associated, above all, with Bizet's Carmen (The Wall Street Journal described her as "the most fervent Carmen on the contemporary opera scene"), and Saint-Saëns's Delilah, roles she performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, in the opera houses in San Francisco, Washington, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Zurich, the Vienna State Opera, London's Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Arena di Verona, among others.
This native of Washington has become extremely popular in the USA, not only for her talent and exceptional skills as a singer, but also through her other endeavours. She works closely with the Red Cross, to whom she also donated all her proceeds from her CD Memorial, which she recorded with her first husband, the guitarist David Perry. In 1999 she appeared together with Andrea Bocelli in Massenet's Werther at the Michigan Opera; this was the first opera to be broadcast on the Internet. In December of that year she performed during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo. On 14 September 2001 she was invited by President George Bush to sing at a concert held in Washington's National Cathedral to honour the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack. She has had her own regular weekly programme on nationwide XM satellite radio since 2005 entitled "Voce di Donna", and she also appears frequently on television. She performed with Plácido Domingo in Washington on 17 April 2008 during the first visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the USA; during the mass celebrated in Nationals Park, Denyce Graves sang the spiritual We Are One in the Spirit and Domingo performed Panis angelicus.
Denyce Graves's repertoire is equally broad in other musical genres. While her chief domain is opera, she also has an extensive concert repertoire and often gives song or operatic recitals and appears in programmes featuring numbers from Broadway musicals or spirituals and gospel music (which we will be hearing in the second half of her Prague concert).
CONCERT PROGRAMME AT THE PRAGUE STATE OPERA:
Francesco Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur - Acerba volutta (DG)
Francesco Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur - Preludio (SOČR)
Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson and Delilah - Mon coeur (DG)
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydice - Reigen seliger Geister (MM)
Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Dido's Lament (DG)
Gaetano Donizetti: Il concertino for flute and orchestra (MM)
Gaetano Donizetti: La Favorite - O mio Fernando (DG)
2nd half
Ennio Morricone: Mission medley - for flute and orchestra (MM)
Just You (DG)
Give me Jesus (DG)
Witness (DG)
Every time I feel the spirit (DG)
The joint is really jumpin' down at Carnegie Hall (DG)
