http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/arts/music/joyce-didonatos-journey-through-venice-at-carnegie-hall.html 2014-11-06 01:01:05 Joyce DiDonato’s ‘Journey Through Venice’ at Carnegie Hall Joyce DiDonato returned to Carnegie Hall on Tuesday for a solo recital of songs with a Venetian theme by Vivaldi, Fauré, Rossini and others. === Nine days after seizing Carnegie Hall’s stage as a formidable sorceress in the title role of Her solo recital, “ Ms. DiDonato was confident enough to open not with a bright, overtly virtuosic introduction, but with two mellow arias from the Vivaldi rarity “Ercole su’l Termodonte.” Another singer might have emphasized the melancholy darkness of “Onde chiare che susurrate,” in which the character describes her “pena” and “brama”: her suffering and lust. But Ms. DiDonato made the number seem hopeful and smiling, a telling choice from a charming artist. She was alert to suggestive details. At the close of “En Sourdine,” one of Fauré’s “Cinq Mélodies ‘de Venise,’ ” she shifted from a hint of duskiness on “désespoir” (“despair”) to a barely sweeter, lighter quality in the rosier words that follow, “le rossignol chantera” (“the nightingale will sing”): a subtle, emotionally resonant moment. In the Willow Song from Rossini’s “Otello,” she hardened her tone just a bit in the second verse, swelling the tension and conveying, without overstatement, Desdemona’s growing desperation. Joined by the crisply responsive pianist David Zobel for this latest event in her season-long Michael Head’s Elgar-esque “Three Songs of Venice,” composed for the great mezzo Janet Baker, found Ms. DiDonato doing an uncomfortable impersonation of Ms. Baker’s plummy tone. And her highest notes throughout weren’t dependable in pitch or fullness, as they largely were in “Alcina.” But the most wearing element of her recital — which was streamed live at