Kings Return and Joyce DiDonato Give Dallas the Gift of Song. Where Were You?

Gifts aren’t always apparent.

Seated inside a criminally half-full Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center Wednesday night — more on that particular travesty in a bit — was to behold one of the most extraordinary performances to pass through North Texas in all of 2024.

At a glance, the scene did not look like much, particularly juxtaposed against any A-list arena act with a multitude of video screens, stages and visual effects readymade for Instagram Reels.

There was little more on stage than a handful of music stands, some microphones and the room’s Christmas accoutrement — the halls were beautifully decked with twinkling white lights and garlands and towering trees.

But, oh, what wonders were unfurled across 90 minutes, as coloratura mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Dallas-based vocal quartet Kings Return, accompanied by pianist Craig Terry, indulged a vibrant cross-section of seasonally themed selections, all presented under the cheekily titled title “Kings ReJoyce!”

The quintet of singers connected, randomly enough, via the comments section of YouTube, when DiDonato, awed by the four men’s rendition of “Ave Maria,” left a brief note of appreciation. Kings Return, stunned and grateful, responded, and a correspondence began, which in turn yielded this tour.

Kings Return — bassist Gabe Kunda, tenors JE McKissic and Vaughn Faison and baritone Jamall Williams, each in sharp black suits — is, simply, one of the most incredible vocal ensembles to emerge from Dallas proper and North Texas in recent memory. The fine-grained blend of their voices is entrancing.

That they deliver such astonishing a cappella moments as a sung-through “Nutcracker Suite,” as they did Wednesday, with such a light touch — “This is one of our harder songs, so bear with us,” Kunda said by way of introduction, to some appreciative chuckles — belies the incredible focus and skill required to pull it off.

DiDonato, for her part, was as much audience member as performer Wednesday, sitting back, clad in her cherry red gown, amid the four men and reveling in her close-up view of their harmonizing heroics. “You guys are a very hard act to follow,” she remarked at one point, to enormous grins from Kings Return.

The joke, of course, is that DiDonato is absolutely no slouch herself. Recipient of multiple Grammys and one of the most acclaimed vocalists of the last four decades, DiDonato, who has headlined every venue of consequence from the Metropolitan Opera House to Carnegie Hall to the Barbican Centre, was utterly at ease Wednesday inside the Meyerson (where the attendance almost made the evening feel like the equivalent of a club show).

There were ample moments of unbridled vocal firepower from DiDonato. She tore off a multi-octave “Gloria!” during a medley of hymns that was breathtaking, but she also found considerable potency in restraint, as her nuanced, emotional renditions of “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire/Christmas Waltz” medley, accompanied by Faison on acoustic guitar, illustrated.

The night’s real joy lay in the cross-pollination, as it were, between Kings Return’s looser, more jazz and R&B-tinged arrangements and DiDonato’s only slightly starchier classical presentation.

The set could move from the front-pew ecstasy of “Until I Found the Lord,” which was anchored by an otherworldly turn from McKissic, to the gorgeous textures of “Walking in the Air” to the sly bounce of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” which climaxed with DiDonato affecting a chewy Noo Yawk accent.

The extended Handel interlude — “Rejoice/Halleujah” — best crystallized this union, as Kings Return and DiDonato traded moods, lyrics and tempos, missing nary a beat, as Terry anchored it all from his grand black Steinway. Toggling between bursts of improvisation and regal choral diction, the singers pushed aside genre boundaries to create something truly moving.

The homecoming for Kings Return, which was formed in 2016 at Dallas Baptist University, was equally touching to behold, as many family members and friends were seen and heard in the audience throughout. “It’s just good to be home, y’all,” said McKissic, before Kings Return launched into “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”

That bonhomie is a big reason why it was so deeply frustrating to see so many empty seats scattered throughout the Meyerson Wednesday night. I get it: Too much going on, so many things competing for your attention, sure.

But the pairing of Kings Return and DiDonato deserves to be a tradition — more than once, I hoped this would be an annual occurrence; if nothing else, these five singers should absolutely make an album together — and the ascent of these four phenomenally talented Dallas artists absolutely deserves more attention and more bodies in seats than were on hand Wednesday. Everyone loves to crow about supporting homegrown talent until it becomes moderately inconvenient to do so.

Maybe it’s less a question of the holidays and their attendant attention-stretching chaos than of general awareness.

If that’s the case, let me say it plain: Should Kings Return appear on a stage anywhere in the vicinity of North Texas — with or without Joyce DiDonato in tow (although she would be most welcome) — you should do everything in your power to put yourself in their proximity, and let them give you a gift of transcendent beauty.