The following is an excerpt from a March 19 story in on Joyce DiDonato, opera star and graduate of 成人头条's College of Fine Arts.
Online the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato calls herself Yankee Diva, one hopes with tongue in cheek. (You can visit her at yankeediva.blogspot.com.) While the characterization suggests some of her pluck and gumption, it leaves untouched her sensitivity, grace and kaleidoscopic sense of fantasy. The whole package came into play last July 4 in London, at the season premiere of Rossini's "Barbiere di Siviglia" at the Royal Opera House, when Ms. DiDonato slipped and fractured a fibula midway through the first act, grabbed a crutch and finished the show to a standing ovation.
Though for the rest of the run her Rosina used a wheelchair, the public was not shortchanged at all. A DVD recorded at the time, to be released in April, documents Ms. DiDonato living her character in every tilt of the chin and toss of the head, hurling glances like darts (and actual darts like thunderbolts). No less vivid are the patter of the dialogue, the elegance of the melodic lines, her flair in the cascades of coloratura.