The mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has covered a lot of territory in her operatic appearances, in the process swiftly securing a position as one of the most engaging, consistently satisfying singers around. In a recital she presented in Lincoln Center’s Art of the Song series at the Rose Theater on Wednesday night, she ranged farther still.
Accompanied by the pianist David Zobel, Ms. DiDonato opened with three arias from operas by Vivaldi. The qualities that have made her a hot commodity in Handel were on full display: powerful low notes, penetrating highs and utter security in between, as well as dazzling technical command, stylish ornamentation and an eloquent grasp of character.
Persuasive accounts of four lovely songs by Chausson made you hope that Ms. DiDonato might find time in her crowded schedule to record this elegantly fashioned music. She and Mr. Zobel struck just the right tone for the plain-spoken simplicity of “Hébé,” the languid sensuality of “Sérénade,” the deftly rendered nostalgia of “Le Colibri” and the busy flutter of “Les Papillons.”
Two works in the program, Turina’s “Poema en Forma de Canciones” and Copland’s “12 Songs of Emily Dickinson,” have turned up on Ms. DiDonato’s adventurous CDs. Here she endowed the Turina with a suitably sultry passion and brought clarity to eight of Copland’s angular, enigmatic Dickinson settings.
After a tender rendition of “The Man I Love,” Ms. DiDonato had some fun with more Gershwin: “By Strauss,” a witty tribute to the waltz king Johann Jr. A rewritten introduction deflated the composers whose music she had just performed. She pretended to take a cellphone call inviting her to sing in Vienna and proceeded to rhapsodize. Mr. Zobel’s sly intimations of an unrelated Strauss, Richard, drew an admonishment.
Ms. DiDonato proved her genuine regard for Richard Strauss in her first encore, a blazing account of “Musik ist eine heilige Kunst” from the opera “Ariadne auf Naxos.” And if that pointed toward Ms. DiDonato’s future, her second encore, “Non più mesta” from Rossini’s “Cenerentola,” reminded listeners why they had fallen for her in the first place.
