This anthology is the result of the collaboration with the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato who had expressed the wish to record a CD with my ensemble Il Complesso Barocco. It should not just be another compilation of famous arias by Handel or Vivaldi, but a collection of pieces of quite different styles and from different epochs which are linked by a common superordinate topic. (…) I pointed out to her that there were plenty of wonderful arias and even entire solo scenes which had been sung on the Baroque stage both by female singers and castratos playing the parts of famous historical female rulers and heroines. By suggesting the title Drama Queens, she reduced the whole thing to a contemporary formula. Our idea was to cultivate extremes, to gather arias that show larger-than-life emotions. (Alan Curtis)This anthology is the ideal companion product to Joyce DiDonato’s CD. It is aimed towards all interested performers of intermediate to advanced standard seeking emotive and dramatic rediscoveries from the Baroque and Classical periods.

Giuseppe Maria Orlandini: Da torbida procella (from Berenice, 1725)* - Giovanni Porta: Madre diletta, abbracciami (from Ifigenia in Aulide, 1738)* - Georg Friedrich Händel: Ma quando tornerai (from Alcina, 1735) - Reinhard Keiser: Lasciami piangere (from Fredegunda, 1715)* - Johann Adolf Hasse: Morte col Fiero aspetto (from Antonio e Cleopatra, 1725) - Georg Friedrich Händel: Piangerò la sorte mia (from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, 1724) - Antonio Cesti: Intorno all'idol mio (from Orontea, 1656) - Georg Friedrich Händel: Brilla nell'alma (from Alessandro, 1726) - Reinhard Keiser: Geloso sospetto (from Octavia, 1705) - Claudio Monteverdi: Disprezzata regina (from L'incoronazione di Poppea, 1643) - Geminiano Giacomelli: Sposa son disperezzata (from Merope, 1734) - Giuseppe Maria Orlandini: Col versar, barbaro, il sangue (from Berenice, 1725)* - Franz Joseph Haydn: Vedi se t'amo (from Armida, 1784) - Reinhard Keiser: Lasciami piangere (from Fredegunda, 1715 (transposed version))* - * First publication