Once More Into the Breeches: Joyce DiDonato Sings Strauss
b"The young Composer in Strauss\\u2019s Ariadne auf Naxos is one of opera\\u2019s great trouser roles -- a female singer playing the part of a young man. \\xa0He is set to premiere his new opera at the home of the richest man in Vienna, only to learn moments before the performance that a bawdy comedy troupe will be performing at the same time.\\xa0\\nAs his plans collapse around him, the Composer falls in love with Zerbinetta, the leader of the commedia dell'arte troupe, and his whole world changes in a flash. In his aria \\u201cSein wir wieder gut,\\u201d he sings about how he now sees everything with new eyes. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the transformational power of\\xa0love, music and putting on a pair of pants.\\nThe Guests\\nMezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is a multi Grammy Award-winner and a fierce advocate for the arts. She\\u2019s also kind of a hero, bringing her talents to classrooms, prisons, and refugee camps, and sharing the transformative power of music. She loves playing trouser roles, and finds singing the Composer in particular to be an experience of discovery and total joy.\\xa0\\nWriter Paul Thomason is a die-hard Strauss fan and is writing a book about the composer. He sees Strauss as the great humanist among composers, because he presents his characters exactly as they are. He studied conducting and worked with maestros Thomas Schippers and Peter Maag. He has also appeared on the Met Opera\\u2019s intermission quizzes during their Saturday broadcasts.\\nMo B. Dick is a founding father of the drag king movement. He started performing in drag in 1995 and founded Club Cassanova, the first weekly party dedicated to drag kings, and has made appearances in movies and television. He is also one of the cofounders of the website dragkinghistory.com, which archives the history of drag kings and crossdressers dating all the way back to the Tang dynasty."