This recital, taped live in London, consists of songs about Venice by Rossini dating from the 1850s, by the British composer Michael Head which were debuted in England in 1977, by Fauré from the early 1890s, and by the Venezuelan Reynaldo Hahn when he was in Venice in 1901. The Rossini selections are light pieces that charm, the Head cycle is easy-going and simple, the Fauré songs contain ruminations on love, and those by Hahn, in Venetian dialect, are very tactile, depicting nights under starry skies, flirtations, and happy times. Encores are one of Sesto's arias from Handel's Giulio Cesare and Cenerentola's final rondo: the first a lesson in sustained legato singing, the second a dazzling showpiece. Joyce di Donato is one of America's great natural resources: She has a voice brimming with nuance, totally unaffected and technically assured and an interpretive gift that finds just the right color and mood for each song. She never exaggerates; she just communicates. A lovely recital, and an unusual one to boot. --Robert Levine

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