Diddú

Early life and education

The second of seven children of Hjálmtýr E. Hjálmtýsson, a bank clerk, and Margrét Matthíasdóttir, a writer, Diddú was born on 8 August 1955 and raised in Reykjavík. She studied at the Reykjavík College of Music, and afterwards at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she received a degree (1979–1984) and a postgraduate diploma (1985). She also had private singing lessons in Italy between 1987 and 1988.

Career

Diddú began her singing career as a vocalist with the folk and pop group Spilverk Þjóðanna between 1975 and 1978 and made numerous recordings of folk and popular music, before turning her focus to classical music, particularly Lieder and operas. With the Icelandic Opera she has performed the parts of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Gilda in Rigoletto, Papagena and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Violetta in La traviata, Adina in L'elisir d'amore and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus. She was a guest singer as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro in Trondheim, Norway, and as Gilda in Rigoletto in Gothenburg, Sweden (1992). She has also sung the role of Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) at the Þjóðleikhúsið (Thjodleikhusid, or National Theatre of Iceland) in Reykjavík.

In 1994, Diddú appeared in Bíódagar (Movie Days) by Icelandic film director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, playing the mother of a young boy living in the 1950s who is engrossed with American movies.

In 2001, Diddú performed at a special concert in Beijing, China, in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. The concert was held to commemorate 30 years of relations between Iceland and China.

On 26 September 2007, Diddú was a special guest of Garðar Thór Cortes at a concert at the Barbican Centre in London with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cortes's father, Garðar Cortes. She performed "Il Bacio" ("The Kiss"), "Mein Herr Marquis" ("My Lord Marquis") from Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus (The Bat, 1874), the cavatina "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma (1831), and "É strano... sempre libera" ("It's Strange... Ever Free") from Verdi's La traviata (1853); and duetted with Garðar Thór Cortes in "O soave fanciulla" ("O Gentle Maiden") from Puccini's La Bohème (The Bohemian, 1896), in a duet from Act I scene 5 of Verdi's Rigoletto (1851), and in "The Prayer" (c. 1999) by Carole Bayer Sager.

Personal life

Diddú's husband is musician Þorkell Jóelsson (born 28 May 1952). Her father, Hjálmtýr E. Hjálmtýsson (5 July 1933 – 12 September 2002), had roles in the Icelandic comedies Með allt á hreinu (On Top, 1982), Löggulíf (A Policeman's Life, 1985) and Karlakórinn Hekla (The Men's Choir, 1992). Diddú's youngest brother, Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson, is a pop singer, songwriter and disc jockey.

Discography