The arias in this present edition were newly edited, in some cases for the first time, for the CD project. As the first volume of the "Complesso Barocco Edition", it marks the beginning of a new collaboration between Alan Curtis and Boosey & Hawkes within whose frame-work critical and practical editions of numerous major works, in addition to rediscoveries from the Baroque to the Classical periods, will be made accessible to all interested performers.


"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


"Perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation" according to the New Yorker, 2012 Grammy Award Winner Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences and critics alike across the globe and is continuing her tour of Drama Queens throughout Europe with a final performance in Madrid on March 3rd 2013.