Audiences lose their heads over DiDonato's opera performance as Mary Queen of Scots

LONDON -- On stage and off, you don't want to tangle with Joyce DiDonato -- American soprano extraordinaire and practiced kickboxer, too. The 45-year-old diva has been leaving audiences at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden roaring for her singing and performing of the hugely demanding bel canto (beautiful singing) role of the doomed Queen Maria Stuarda -- Mary Queen of Scots -- in the second of Gaetano Donizetti's three Tudor operas.