REVIEW: The Splendor of Joyce DiDonato in Kevin Puts’ Chamber Opera ‘Emily–No Prisoner Be’

October 9, 2026

Aficionados of solo vocal music—art songs, lieder, opera arias—expect celebrity opera singers to give solo recitals from time to time. And these recitals follow a hallowed tradition: the singer stands center stage in front of a concert grand and an accomplished pianist who accompanies the solo singer.

Opera mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, however, has reinvented the traditional vocal recital by collaborating with instrumental and vocal ensembles in sophisticated theme-based programs. In January, 2023, she brought the period instrument chamber ensemble Il Pomo D’Oro to The Conrad stage to collaborate in a smashing program of Baroque opera arias. And for her set of encores, she then brought onstage the Challenger Middle School Choir, a San Diego based youth choir, to join her.

In December, 2024, at The Conrad, she collaborated with the African-American male vocal quartet Kings Return in a thrilling Christmas program that blended spirituals with traditional sacred and secular holiday favorites.

Thursday at The Conrad, DiDonato raised the collaborative stakes significantly by presenting composer Kevin Puts’ Emily—No Prisoner Be, a stage work Puts wrote employing the poetry of Emily Dickinson specifically for DiDonato and the string trio Time For Three.

Now there is nothing unusual about a composer deciding to set the poems of Emily Dickinson to music. Respected musicologists estimate that there are some 3,000 vocal settings of Dickinson’s poetry! Because most of these songs are written for voice and piano, Puts knew his work would stand out by surrounding the voice with this brilliant string trio that could also serve as vocal backup trio in some of the songs. I am pretty certain that the sonic interaction between DiDonato and Time For Three turned out to be more fabulous than Puts could have imagined, although I have no way to verify this observation.

In the work’s opening salvo, “They Shut Me up,” the strings’ roiling tremolandos and DiDonato’s dramatic declamation in her highest register set the passionate tone that suffused even the more understated songs. In this poem, Dickinson explains that when her family shut her up in a closet to shield them from her chatter and questions, it only caused her mind and imagination to work overtime. Her biographers report that as an adult, she sat sequestered in a small room in her father’s house to write her poetry. This biographical insight no doubt suggested Puts’ title, Emily—No Prisoner Be, a belief that even when the poet was confined, her spirit and imagination remained free.

An eerie, quiet viola theme opened the confessional poem, “I Was the Slightest in the House—,” and DiDonato’s voice pulled back to a whisper that revealed the poet’s austere, solitary persona. But forceful, angular vocal lines proclaimed her defense of nonconformity: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society.” The warmth, intensity and focus of DiDonato’s alluring mezzo-soprano graced and uplifted the mood of every song. As she ascended into her highest register, the voice bloomed with unexpected brightness. If you did not know that she identifies as a mezzo-soprano, on first hearing you might easily conclude that she is a lyric soprano or a spinto!

Dickinson’s dramatic poem on a taboo theme (at least in polite society) “Because I Could Not Stop for Death—“ has proven a frequent choice for composers, and Puts rises to the challenge with vibrant string ostinatos and agitated vocal surges that DiDonato declaimed with barely guarded ferocity. Flashing lights onstage and an eerie vocal chorus underlined the otherworldly character of the music.

When Puts read through Dickinson’s oeuvre, he noted her fascination with bees, which prompted him to insert short, buzzing instrumental interludes that he named “Bee Scherzo,” and he scattered them throughout the work. The velvet string sonority of Time For Three—contrabass Ranaan Meyer, violinist Charles Yang, and Nicolas Kendall who alternated viola and violin—easily matched the finesse and warmth of DiDonato’s mezzo-soprano, but since they were also called upon to supply more edgy timbres in the “Bee Scherzo” movements, they delivered dissonance with surprising elegance.

The single set for Emily—No Prisoner Be featured an oversized desk placed at an angle, at which DiDonato sang some of the time to indicate the poet at work. Most of the time, however, she either sat on a chair facing the audience or sat on the floor or knelt looking up admiringly at her instrumentalists. The changing moods of the songs found DiDonato in a different position or place on the stage, an advantage over the traditional song recital, where the vocalist is typically locked into a stance near the crook of the concert grand.

With slightly over twenty songs on the program, I think that if I attempted to comment on every single song, only voice teachers would read every comment. However, one song close to the end of the program does deserve special attention. Puts gives “If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking,” Dickinson’s poignant, concise description of empathy, a soaring, fervent melody that flows over a quiet instrumental recollection of Michael Praetorius’ carol “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. I tear up just remembering DiDonato and the strings presenting this song in the reverent silence of The Conrad.

This production was directed by Joyce DiDonato; production design by Ryan J. O’Gara; and sound engineering by Colin Egan.

This concert was presented by the La Jolla Music Society at The Conrad on Thursday, October 8, 2026.