Internationally famous opera singer Danielle de Niese returns to her roots this month, making her first visit to Sri Lanka, the land of her parents’ birth. She will give two much-awaited concerts, the first on November 14 at the Cinnamon Grand and then on November 21, singing at the Jetwing Lighthouse hotel in Galle. Born [...]

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Await Handel arias to perennial favourites from Danielle de Niese

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Internationally famous opera singer Danielle de Niese returns to her roots this month, making her first visit to Sri Lanka, the land of her parents’ birth. She will give two much-awaited concerts, the first on November 14 at the Cinnamon Grand and then on November 21, singing at the Jetwing Lighthouse hotel in Galle.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Danielle grew up in Los Angeles, USA and has enjoyed a prolific career, hitting the high spots with effortless ease. She started young winning an Emmy award at the age of 16 for an LA weekly arts show she hosted for teenagers and was the youngest singer chosen for the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. After her Met debut as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, she has enjoyed a meteoric rise, which has seen her perform at the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera and many other celebrated venues with some of the world’s leading names. Her latest album released in 2011 titled ‘Beauty of the Baroque’ sees Danielle singing arias from the English, German and Italian traditions. 2012 dawned brilliantly with Danielle in the role of Ariel in the New York Metropolitan Opera’s world premiere of The Enchanted Island alongside the likes of Placido Domingo and Joyce DiDonato, then appearing as Atalanta in Handel’s Xerxes in Vienna and as Norina in Don Pasquale at the San Diego Opera. She recently completed a six-city debut tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and comes to Colombo fresh from the Placido Domingo Festival in Seville, Spain.

And now finally she will be singing for her many Lankan fans who have been following the sultry diva’s career with avid interest these past years. Her programme at the Colombo concert has been carefully chosen and begins with some favourite Handel arias: ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’, ‘Ombra mai fu’, ‘Lascia’ and ‘Endless Pleasure’, two songs by John Dowland ‘Come again’, ‘What If I never speed’, followed by Mozart’s ‘Exultate jubilate’.

The second half will see her in lighter vein, with a selection from Gershwin, Mercer and Cole Porter, those well loved perennials like ‘Summertime’, ‘Let’s call the whole thing off’, ‘I got rhythm’, ‘You’re just too marvellous for words’, ‘I get a kick out of you’ and ‘I hate men’. Also on the programme are French composer Leo Delibes’s 1874 composition ‘Les Filles de Cadix’, Puccini’s ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ from the opera Gianni Schicchi, and Donizetti’s ‘Quel guardo il cavaliere…So anch’io la virtu’ magica’ again from Don Pasquale.
Danielle’s visit to Sri Lanka is at the invitation of the Mano Chanmugam Music Foundation.
The Sunday Times, Daily Mirror and the Hi!! Magazine are the print media sponsors.




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