Nearly a decade after singing Didon and Énée in Berlioz's Les Troyens, Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres are reunited as the star-crossed lovers in Purcell's much more economical treatment of the same story, with a luxury supporting cast and colourful, imaginative playing from the Italian period instrument ensemble.
In the wake of her recent recording of songs by Schubert, Brahms, Robert Schumann and the Mendelssohns, the Egyptian soprano discusses how her passion for the German language and literature was ignited during her childhood in Cairo, the joy of making music with true friends - and why her heart lies in the concert-hall rather than the opera-house for the moment...