Speaker 1: Always for me, music connected me to um something divine.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't always know how to describe it,
Speaker 1: but that's the word. I keep coming back to, something
Speaker 1: much bigger than myself and something that feels elevated from
Speaker 1: you know, the cement Jungles that we traveling. That was
Speaker 1: opera star Joyce de Donado. The New York Times is
Speaker 1: called this mezzo soprano perhaps the most potent female singer
Speaker 1: of her generation, and her dedication to making a deep
Speaker 1: human connection through music is evident in her latest role
Speaker 1: as Virginia Wolf in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere of
Speaker 1: The Hours. Joyce's performance has been acclaimed as outstanding, confident, fresh, subtle,
Speaker 1: and sonorous. I'm Alan ververe In. This is Seneca's on
Speaker 1: women to hear. We're bringing you one hundred of the
Speaker 1: world's most inspiring and history making women. You need to hear.
Speaker 1: Joyce de Donado has three Grammy Awards to her name,
Speaker 1: as well as many other honors. She has sung on
Speaker 1: stages from the met to Carnegie Hall, from Barcelona to Berlin.
Speaker 1: Not bad for a girl from prairie village, Kansas who
Speaker 1: was told starting out that she didn't have much talent,
Speaker 1: And here's some great news for her fans. Even if
Speaker 1: you can't get to New York City to hear joy sing,
Speaker 1: you can see her this coming Saturday, December tenth, when
Speaker 1: The Hours will be broadcast live in theaters. Go to
Speaker 1: the Met's website met Opera dot org for the details. Now,
Speaker 1: let's and then learn why Joyce de Donado is one
Speaker 1: of Seneca's One Women to Hear. I'm speaking today to
Speaker 1: award winning global opera star Joyce de Donado. Welcome, Joyce.
Speaker 1: It's a thrill to have you with us. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm very honored to be here. Now. I know you're
Speaker 1: appearing in the world premiere of The Hours in New
Speaker 1: York City and you're singing the part of Virginia Wolf. Now,
Speaker 1: how terrific is that? Can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about what that means to you? Where do I start?
Speaker 1: How much time do we have? As much as you need?
Speaker 1: Superb um it is. There are so many different elements
Speaker 1: about this experience that are incredibly rich. One is the
Speaker 1: very baseline of doing a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera.
Speaker 1: It's they haven't given very many world premiers, and they're
Speaker 1: very illustrious history, and so it's a very honorous situation.
Speaker 1: It's not only a world premiere of a new opera,
Speaker 1: but it's also building on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel
Speaker 1: on an Academy Award winning film. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: history to this, and you mix into the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm playing such a Titanic woman of a role very complex,
Speaker 1: had a huge impact on the arts, on feminism on
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf. That alone is another immense
Speaker 1: element to this. But what I'm finding perhaps the most
Speaker 1: powerful part of this is the timing of it. I
Speaker 1: think this is a story that resonated quite strongly, you know,
Speaker 1: in the late nineties when the novel was written, and
Speaker 1: then early two thousand when the film came out. But
Speaker 1: we've just spent two and a half years in isolation.
Speaker 1: We've spent the last two and a half years where
Speaker 1: so many of our loved ones were The issues of
Speaker 1: mental health really can screaming to the surface. We've had
Speaker 1: a pandemic with a new virus, you know, and certainly
Speaker 1: the theme of AIDS is very present in the hours,
Speaker 1: and so the timing of re encountering this story I
Speaker 1: think is very powerful and it's coming through the power
Speaker 1: of music. The words in the novel were very strong,
Speaker 1: the what's the word? The impact of the film was
Speaker 1: also very strong with these great actresses, and there's there
Speaker 1: was a kind of distance that pulled you into that story.
Speaker 1: But the difference with the operas that we have the
Speaker 1: music to just fill in the emotional impact of these
Speaker 1: immense stories of these ladies. So that's a there's a
Speaker 1: lot on my mind with it. So it's hard to
Speaker 1: pinpoint exactly with your question, but it's a it feels
Speaker 1: like a great honor, and it feels like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of responsibility to do this story justice at this
Speaker 1: moment in time. Well, you said that so well, and
Speaker 1: I can understand why it feels like a great honor.
Speaker 1: I think the other interesting aspect of the Hours is
Speaker 1: that you're appearing with Renee Fleming and Kelly O'Hara, two
Speaker 1: other iconic singers, needless to say, and I wonder what
Speaker 1: happens when you get three divas together and what is
Speaker 1: your working relationship like with the other two. It's been
Speaker 1: extraordinary and and I have to say, the way this
Speaker 1: piece has emerged is it feels like a huge ensemble piece.
Speaker 1: So I know that we're the ones on the poster
Speaker 1: and in the advertisements, and of course it's the story
Speaker 1: of these three women, but we have eighteen characters in total,
Speaker 1: and we have a huge chorus that essentially like a
Speaker 1: Greek chorus treatment of it, and in many ways they're
Speaker 1: the inner voices of these three women. And we've added
Speaker 1: a dance ensemble as well that that becomes the link
Speaker 1: between these three stories. And it was set up from
Speaker 1: day one that this was really going to be a
Speaker 1: community effort to bring this to life. So that's important
Speaker 1: to understand the umbrella. But to go into the heart
Speaker 1: of your question, I mean, I think it was paramount
Speaker 1: that that you have equal and you have three women
Speaker 1: that bring different strengths to these stories, but also bring
Speaker 1: an incredible gravitas to each one of the roles that
Speaker 1: they're singing, because they are three equal stories that merge
Speaker 1: into want the end. And so I think it was
Speaker 1: really quite brilliant of Peter Gelp and the met to
Speaker 1: really cast this in a daring kind of way, but
Speaker 1: in a way that you're bringing not just actresses or singers,
Speaker 1: but artists into these roles. And what I have very
Speaker 1: happily found throughout my career is that the people that
Speaker 1: rise to the very top of the industry are usually
Speaker 1: the hardest workers and the ones that leave a lot
Speaker 1: of space to learn and grow through their humility and
Speaker 1: their generosity as performers. And that's what I have found
Speaker 1: with the three of us in this room is we
Speaker 1: want everybody to be extraordinary so that the impact of
Speaker 1: the story is not just about a diva performance. It's
Speaker 1: about what we really bring to life into the heart
Speaker 1: of the listener. It's been a total pleasure to summarize,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just an inspiration to hear you talk
Speaker 1: about it in those terms. You know, was thinking about
Speaker 1: what you said. It's not just three stories, it's three artists,
Speaker 1: and I might add amazing artists. So what a what
Speaker 1: a powerful production? How did all of this start? Let's
Speaker 1: talk about Joyce a little bit. You grew up in
Speaker 1: Prairie Village, Kansas, and you are now on the stage
Speaker 1: of the Metropolitan Opera, and I wonder, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: our listeners are so interested in knowing as well, what
Speaker 1: was your childhood like? Did you spend your young years
Speaker 1: just singing all the time, or you know what brought
Speaker 1: you to these great roles and the one that we're
Speaker 1: you've just described so brilliantly and vividly. I had a
Speaker 1: in many ways an idyllic childhood and in many ways
Speaker 1: a really challenging childhood. It was a very musical family,
Speaker 1: very musical and all kinds of genres that definitely classical
Speaker 1: music by um the heart of it, but older sisters
Speaker 1: that listened to Broadway music and my older brother listening
Speaker 1: to his hard rock and roll a C. D. C Um.
Speaker 1: And I was a child of the eighties, so I
Speaker 1: was very much in the pop culture of of Madonna
Speaker 1: and Michael Jackson, and I lived for that, and I
Speaker 1: had the blessing of of having an extraordinary choral experience
Speaker 1: was when I was in high school, and so I
Speaker 1: was very clear at eighteen, very clear that I was
Speaker 1: going to become a high school music teacher, trying to
Speaker 1: be the cool one and saving kids lives because it
Speaker 1: was that's what it felt like it did for me.
Speaker 1: I um, you know, I was the sixth of seven
Speaker 1: kids Irish Catholic family, and by the time I was
Speaker 1: in high school, you know, my parents were tired, my
Speaker 1: parents were tired, and I was. I think me and
Speaker 1: my little brother were sort of bles defend for ourselves,
Speaker 1: and you know, we had a lot of financial difficulties,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of pressure for me to
Speaker 1: help my parents, to sort of parent them. Actually, when
Speaker 1: I was a teenager and the high school musical and
Speaker 1: the choral experiences were the place where I just got
Speaker 1: to be me and I got to really dream and
Speaker 1: um fulfill things just for my sake. And I wanted
Speaker 1: to give that experience to other kids. And so I
Speaker 1: went to Wichita State to be a music teacher. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was paying my own way through college,
Speaker 1: and so I could get some extra scholarship money if
Speaker 1: I joined the opera chorus. And I thought, that's an
Speaker 1: extra two a year a semester, which is now is
Speaker 1: sort of unheard of, but I needed that back then.
Speaker 1: And uh, and I got into the opera and I
Speaker 1: just my world exploded. Not from having watched it. I
Speaker 1: didn't watch an opera and think I have to do that.
Speaker 1: Mind came from the inside because I started to study
Speaker 1: this music and sing it and it was such a
Speaker 1: culmination of everything I wanted to be. I had to
Speaker 1: address musicality, singing, the theatrics of becoming and losing myself
Speaker 1: in another character, the human psychology, the human existence, which
Speaker 1: is what Opera deals with, the huge emotions, and always,
Speaker 1: for me, music connected me to something divine. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't always know how to describe it, but that's
Speaker 1: the word. I keep coming back to, something much bigger
Speaker 1: than myself and something that feels elevated from you know,
Speaker 1: the cement jungles that we travel in, and I just
Speaker 1: I decided to go for it. And my journey was
Speaker 1: a very slow burn. I was not a bona fide
Speaker 1: star from the beginning, by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1: I didn't really start coming into my own until my
Speaker 1: early thirties. But I kept working, and I kept with
Speaker 1: a certain amount of determination because I felt there was
Speaker 1: something inside that I was destined to express. Well, you
Speaker 1: said it didn't come quickly, and it was a lot
Speaker 1: of work that you engaged in to get where you are.
Speaker 1: But you've been called perhaps the most potent female singer
Speaker 1: of your generation, with a voice that is twenty four
Speaker 1: carrot gold. Now that's high high praise. What did it
Speaker 1: take to get that voice? You talked about it not
Speaker 1: coming quickly, obviously, and how do you maintain it? You know,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting to hear people of your extraordinary caliber
Speaker 1: are such extraordinary performers in music. How do you project
Speaker 1: your personality through your singing, because just listening to you,
Speaker 1: you have a very powerful personality. M M. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's why I chose opera, because opera is
Speaker 1: sort of larger than life, you know. I, um, well,
Speaker 1: the first part of your question. I've always looked at
Speaker 1: myself as things that came very easily to me were
Speaker 1: musicianship and theatricality. I was at home the first moment
Speaker 1: I stepped onto the stage. Um. I think my first
Speaker 1: play was Harvey. In high school, I played Vita Louise Simmons,
Speaker 1: and uh my, there was one moment I had to
Speaker 1: cry on stage. And my older brother continues to take
Speaker 1: credit for that because he used to torture me and
Speaker 1: I learned how to fake cry to get him off
Speaker 1: of me because he was trying to do, I don't know,
Speaker 1: tickle me or something, and uh that sounds more nefarious
Speaker 1: than it was. But I did learn how to fake cry,
Speaker 1: and he claims credit for that, but the actual vocality
Speaker 1: is something I had to work on UM and I
Speaker 1: continue to work on it actually because what I need
Speaker 1: from my instrument, from my voice, is I need it
Speaker 1: to be absolutely at my back and call for what
Speaker 1: I want to express emotionally and musically in theatricality theatrically,
Speaker 1: and so that's that takes a lot of technical work,
Speaker 1: very much like athletes that are trying to hone their
Speaker 1: golf swing or tennis stars that are, you know, working
Speaker 1: on the tiny refinements to their serve to get that
Speaker 1: one extra mile per hour UM. And that's the kind
Speaker 1: of work I continue to do vocally. But I that
Speaker 1: really has been my end, the sort of engine behind
Speaker 1: what I do, because I've seen firsthand how transformative a
Speaker 1: huge musical experiences for the human spirit. Maybe it's somebody
Speaker 1: who is discovering their voice for the first time, it's
Speaker 1: somebody who's listening to it and they're feeling things that
Speaker 1: the world doesn't normally allow them to feel in the
Speaker 1: course of their day. And I know that it's a
Speaker 1: force that can be extremely potent and extremely healing and
Speaker 1: extremely transformative. And so that's why I continue to work,
Speaker 1: and that's why I choose my projects or create my
Speaker 1: projects today so that they invite people to go deeper
Speaker 1: then normal things in a modern society require of people.
Speaker 1: And I think it's it's genuinely where people want to
Speaker 1: go if they feel safe. They want to take that
Speaker 1: trip inside if they feel safe. And that's what music
Speaker 1: and the kind of music that you are engaged and
Speaker 1: can do to the human spirit lifted up in ways
Speaker 1: that it can sore. And you talk about that so deeply,
Speaker 1: you know. I heard you talk about how this didn't
Speaker 1: come easily and how you have to work to keep
Speaker 1: your voice in good form. And I know you've also
Speaker 1: encountered many stumbling blocks in your career. At one time,
Speaker 1: you were told you didn't have much talent, which I
Speaker 1: find extremely hard to believe having listened to you and
Speaker 1: knowing of your extraordinary abilities. You couldn't get management until
Speaker 1: you were twenty nine. So how did you keep going?
Speaker 1: That's a good question, you know. I um, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how much of it was me and how much
Speaker 1: of it was a stubborn this and a frustration. That
Speaker 1: comment came to me when I was twenty six years
Speaker 1: old and I was on a At that point, I
Speaker 1: was starting to be on a track um a young
Speaker 1: artist track in the opera world, which means it's it's
Speaker 1: like the top apprenticeship before you land the big lawyer
Speaker 1: job or something. It's it it's you're not quite over
Speaker 1: the hump, but you're nearly there, and you're on a
Speaker 1: track to get there. And of course it devastated me
Speaker 1: when that comment came in, But as I look back
Speaker 1: on it now, I know why it was made and
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily in error. It wasn't very kindly stated,
Speaker 1: but it was true because I I wasn't yet at
Speaker 1: a place where I had released a lot of my
Speaker 1: walls and a lot of my um the barriers I
Speaker 1: had constructed to protect myself. I mean, I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: there is very few things in life that are as
Speaker 1: frightening as opening up your voice without a microphone and
Speaker 1: singing masterpieces in front of people live. You know. I
Speaker 1: we sing Mozart and Strauss and and shoe Berts and
Speaker 1: Rossini and handle and it's like a painter saying, here,
Speaker 1: paint this Rembrandt live in front of us. If they're
Speaker 1: masterpieces that require great care and attention and reverence, but
Speaker 1: at the same time we have to make them feel
Speaker 1: as if they're being created on the spot with our voice,
Speaker 1: with all its limitations, with all its glory, with all
Speaker 1: its instabilities, with all its strength, everything, And we know
Speaker 1: this when we speak. If you're asked to get up
Speaker 1: and speak in front of a crowd, your voice betrays
Speaker 1: every insecurity you have, every fear, every shape, every quiver,
Speaker 1: every dryness, every emotion. If you start to become emotional,
Speaker 1: your voice quivers. It is such a naked state of existence.
Speaker 1: And so then you you are bringing these masterpieces to
Speaker 1: life with your voice, and people are there to listen.
Speaker 1: And it is an extreme state of vulnerability, and at
Speaker 1: the same time it requires complete and total abandoned and
Speaker 1: strength because you've got to project over seventy piece orchestra
Speaker 1: into it four thousand seat house. So it's this incredible
Speaker 1: battle between vulnerability and strength, between embracing where you are
Speaker 1: on that day, whether you rested well or had a
Speaker 1: good meal, or you might be a little under the
Speaker 1: weather um and just putting yourself out there. And that
Speaker 1: is a long process to learn as a human being.
Speaker 1: I knew my music, I was technically proficient, but there
Speaker 1: was this personal barrier that was inhibiting my total expression.
Speaker 1: To come through, and that's why people were listening. Yeah
Speaker 1: the voice is fine, Yeah, her languages are good. She's fine,
Speaker 1: but there's not much talent. So I understand where that
Speaker 1: comment came from. And I continued to work vocally, but
Speaker 1: I really believe that the real work was at a
Speaker 1: deeply personal level for me and continues to be. Senecas
Speaker 1: one hundred women to hear will be back after this
Speaker 1: short break. You know, Joyce, that was so fascinating and
Speaker 1: as I've been listening to you, you have this ability
Speaker 1: to fully understand what your work can do for someone
Speaker 1: sitting there in the audience, what it does to the
Speaker 1: human soul, if you will. And I know you gave
Speaker 1: this extraordinary commencement speech at Juilliard where some of that
Speaker 1: came out, I think, and one of the messages that
Speaker 1: you had for the graduates was something very moving. You
Speaker 1: are here to serve humanity. What does that mean for
Speaker 1: a classical singer? Why did you say that? And how
Speaker 1: do you understand that? So? I said it for two reasons, um.
Speaker 1: The first is that I know that the road in
Speaker 1: classical music, in any arts, really, but certainly in classical music,
Speaker 1: is quite tumultuous. It's incredibly demanding and difficult and all
Speaker 1: kinds of challenges and trying to get your music out
Speaker 1: in front of the public. It's even compounded now after
Speaker 1: you know COVID, it's even more treacherous in a way.
Speaker 1: But I wanted. I think one of the big issues
Speaker 1: I see in particular with singers and the singers that
Speaker 1: I don't tend to respond to emotionally, are the ones
Speaker 1: who make it all about themselves and are really trying
Speaker 1: to ultimately, I think, and I understand this. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I went through this myself. They're looking for love. They're
Speaker 1: looking for the audience to tell them that they are
Speaker 1: good or even extraordinary, and that they are loved. And
Speaker 1: so they come onto the stage and their mindset is
Speaker 1: all about them and how they sound and how they look,
Speaker 1: and they're looking to the audience. They're doing these things
Speaker 1: to garner huge reception from the audience to say tell
Speaker 1: me I'm great. And I understand it. It's attempting, understandable thing,
Speaker 1: especially when you're younger. That's not my kind of performer,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you have a right to do that.
Speaker 1: I consider the stage is really a sacred place where again,
Speaker 1: you're dealing with masterpieces, and you're dealing with the extremity
Speaker 1: of the human condition, and especially in we need a
Speaker 1: space where we can explore that safely and where we
Speaker 1: can encourage people to aspire to what classical music can inspire,
Speaker 1: which is beauty, truth, participating in something that is bigger
Speaker 1: than yourself, that requires other people to get out of
Speaker 1: your ego driven self. And what I found in my
Speaker 1: own journey is the more I concentrated on what I
Speaker 1: intended to give to the public, the easier it became
Speaker 1: for me, because it wasn't so dependent on whether I
Speaker 1: was liked or not, or whether I was good or not.
Speaker 1: But if I made them feel something, or even intended
Speaker 1: to make them feel something, whether it was a great
Speaker 1: show or not, I felt good about what I did.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to encourage that class and the
Speaker 1: other artists that go back and revisit that speech to say, actually,
Speaker 1: it's a good thing for you to get out of
Speaker 1: your own way and out of yourself and not make
Speaker 1: it about you. When you get onto the stage, every
Speaker 1: moment before that has to be about you. You have
Speaker 1: to be narcissistic in the way you prepare your voice,
Speaker 1: and the way you study and the way you take
Speaker 1: care of your body. It takes a lot of personal attention,
Speaker 1: but all for the fact that when that curtain comes up,
Speaker 1: you are in service of the message of the beauty
Speaker 1: of the music and at this same time, so I
Speaker 1: wanted to give them a gift. But the second part
Speaker 1: of that is that I just really feel like it's
Speaker 1: what the world needs. What the world needs now is
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a little cheesy, but I really
Speaker 1: believe it. You know, there are very few places left
Speaker 1: where people are invited in to feel something as a community,
Speaker 1: because an opera is still a community, communal experience of
Speaker 1: two thousand people, four thousand people, and there is power
Speaker 1: when people sit side by side from all different backgrounds,
Speaker 1: all different categories, and they agree to pretend for a
Speaker 1: couple of hours and be carried away, usually around a
Speaker 1: story about love or loss, and they collectively sort of
Speaker 1: hold each other's hands through that. I want more of
Speaker 1: that in the world, and so that that is what
Speaker 1: I was trying to charge those students with as well.
Speaker 1: Beautiful and we all want to see more of that
Speaker 1: in the world. Needless to say, you know, the statement
Speaker 1: about you are here to serve humanity also reflects how
Speaker 1: you proceed in your own life, not just as the
Speaker 1: professional artists that you are, but I know you teach music,
Speaker 1: you do prison outreach. You're involved with something called the
Speaker 1: Lullaby Project. Can you tell us about that and what
Speaker 1: inspired it? Oh, this is a fantastic project. UM. That
Speaker 1: was UM that I encountered through Carnegie Hall and their
Speaker 1: Wild Institute of Music. They do such tremendous work going
Speaker 1: into the community and it's sort of I love it
Speaker 1: because it turns that question of how do you get
Speaker 1: to Carnegie Hall practice practice practice? It turns that question
Speaker 1: into how can Carnegie Hall get to you and not
Speaker 1: just the people that can afford opening night gala tickets,
Speaker 1: but to the people of the community here and beyond.
Speaker 1: And this is one of many programs that they have
Speaker 1: built up that I just am deeply inspired by. It
Speaker 1: was the idea of looking at different challenges in society
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, how can Carnegie Hall serve or help
Speaker 1: and and to ameliorate this situation through music. And they
Speaker 1: were looking at the issue of teenage moms single teenage moms,
Speaker 1: and there was science around the issue that single teen
Speaker 1: moms have a much more challenging problem to connect and
Speaker 1: bond with their children for all the imaginable reasons. Financial,
Speaker 1: they're being shunned by society, stressed, they're also very young,
Speaker 1: and they came up with this idea of helping these
Speaker 1: single moms write a lullaby for their child. And so
Speaker 1: they bring in a teaching assistant UM who will talk
Speaker 1: with the mom, get the mom to start sharing her
Speaker 1: feelings about her child, which turns in quite quickly to lyrics,
Speaker 1: and then they work all in the space of a
Speaker 1: couple hours. UM. By the time you leave that session,
Speaker 1: you have a song, and they get the song recorded,
Speaker 1: sometimes with the mother herself and sometimes with the performing artist,
Speaker 1: and this becomes their lullaby to their child. It's deeply personal.
Speaker 1: It immediately bonds the mother and the child, and you
Speaker 1: have the inherent tranquility, comforting world of a lullaby that
Speaker 1: is centuries old, um. But it becomes deeply personal and
Speaker 1: it's been an incredible gift in life to have participated
Speaker 1: in it. Along the way you see women there is
Speaker 1: steam skyrockets. There. Esteem as a mother, but also as
Speaker 1: a human being in the world skyrockets. That child has
Speaker 1: a more deeper connection to the mother. And it sounds
Speaker 1: like a very sort of superficial and endeavor, and it's
Speaker 1: quite the opposite. It is literally transformative and it's incredible.
Speaker 1: And this now, this project has been blueprinted and it
Speaker 1: is across the world. Now I've done some work with
Speaker 1: a refugee camp in Greece through El Systema Greece, and
Speaker 1: they gave a concert a year ago, working with the
Speaker 1: mothers in this refugee camp writing lullabies in all different
Speaker 1: languages for their children. And they in this refugee camp
Speaker 1: in Scar Scaramada's refugee camp Athens, they gave a concert.
Speaker 1: The mothers gave a concert of their lowabye songs. So
Speaker 1: this is why I'm a believer. Oh my god, anybody
Speaker 1: should be a believer after listening to that, and this
Speaker 1: project should be taken to scale all over the world.
Speaker 1: It sounds just extraordinary, really profound. It is, and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you it's the best investment any organization could make.
Speaker 1: It's clear because that's the fundamental mother to child. It's
Speaker 1: the foundation for everything. It ain't rocket science. And as
Speaker 1: you explained, what it does for the mother's self esteem
Speaker 1: and her her mother ring and so much more. You know,
Speaker 1: as happens far too often in this process, we're really
Speaker 1: out of time. But I want to ask you one
Speaker 1: more question, because you're clearly such a deep person, uh,
Speaker 1: and we can hear in this conversation how you see
Speaker 1: the work that you do. There's so much turmoil in
Speaker 1: our world today, there's so much upset and people are
Speaker 1: struggling to have hope. Really, what gives you hope? What
Speaker 1: makes you optimistic? You know, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: places I turned to for hope. At the start of
Speaker 1: the lockdown two and a half years ago, it was
Speaker 1: springtime and I went home and I was able to
Speaker 1: actually be home for the first time where I was
Speaker 1: watching first time in my adult life twenty some years now.
Speaker 1: I was watching the flowers pop out of the ground
Speaker 1: that I had planted, and I thought, you know, these
Speaker 1: flowers are just doing what they do. They don't know
Speaker 1: about a pandemic. They don't know about insurrections, they don't
Speaker 1: know about division, they don't know about economic disparity. They're
Speaker 1: just doing what they do. And I found that to
Speaker 1: be an incredible source of hope about the natural world,
Speaker 1: that these turmoils human turmoils rise and fall, rise and fall,
Speaker 1: and they cycle around both as a society and in
Speaker 1: your own life, and yet that natural world just keeps going.
Speaker 1: I find hope in children and working with them and
Speaker 1: seeing their incredible creative force that is so present when
Speaker 1: they're young, until society just sanitizes it out of them
Speaker 1: in many cases, thankfully not all cases. But that gives
Speaker 1: me incredible hope. But I think the reason I have
Speaker 1: hope is I've decided to have it. I've made a
Speaker 1: decision not to become cynical, because I think cynicism is
Speaker 1: a death knell and I don't want that. I used
Speaker 1: to live with rose colored glasses all the time and
Speaker 1: sort of, you know, put on blinders, and I don't
Speaker 1: do that anymore. I'm aware of what's happening in a
Speaker 1: more profound way than I used to be. But I
Speaker 1: still every day I decide to be hopeful. And the
Speaker 1: minute that decision is made, I can see hope around
Speaker 1: me in the flower, in the child, in the smile
Speaker 1: from a stranger, in the conversation with the taxi driver
Speaker 1: where the ice melts. But I think for me, the
Speaker 1: critical point is that decision I refuse to become cynical.
Speaker 1: I won't allow that of myself. What an extraordinary way
Speaker 1: to end an extraordinary conversation. Thank you so much, Joyce
Speaker 1: de Donado, for who you are and for the magic
Speaker 1: and miracle of your music. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being with us today. Thank you. It's really my honor.
Speaker 1: Thank you. What a profound and moving conversation. Joyce de
Speaker 1: Donado's words will stay with me for a long time.
Speaker 1: Here are three things I took from that conversation. First,
Speaker 1: Joyce shows the power of persistence. She admits that she
Speaker 1: didn't really come into her own as a singer until
Speaker 1: her early thirties, but she was determined to master her
Speaker 1: art because, she says, I felt there was something inside
Speaker 1: that I was destined to express. Second, as she reminds us,
Speaker 1: we are all put on this earth to serve, and
Speaker 1: we each have to find our own unique way to
Speaker 1: do that. As an opera singer, Joyce saw she could
Speaker 1: help others by working with the Lullaby Project, for which
Speaker 1: single mothers create and record songs for the of children. Finally,
Speaker 1: let's emulate Joyce's decision to choose to be hopeful. Cynicism,
Speaker 1: she says, is a death knell, but we can't live
Speaker 1: with blinders on either. Instead, we can be aware of
Speaker 1: what's happening around us every day and then take the
Speaker 1: path of optimism and action. Joyce de Donado appears in
Speaker 1: The Hours at the Met through December. If you can't
Speaker 1: make it to New York City, catch the live broadcast
Speaker 1: of The Hours in Theaters on December ten. Get more
Speaker 1: information at met Opera dot org, and tune in next
Speaker 1: time to care about our next featured woman and discover
Speaker 1: why she's one of Seneca's Women to Hear. Seneca's one
Speaker 1: hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between the Seneca
Speaker 1: Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from
Speaker 1: founding partner P and G. Have a great day, m HM.