Cecilia Bartoli rehearses with Daniel Barenboim at La Scala for her comeback concert tomorrow

As I write, Cecilia Bar­toli is rehears­ing with Daniel Bar­en­boim and the La Scala Phil­har­monic Orches­tra in the Mil­anese theatre. Tomor­row marks her comeback to the theatre after an absence of nearly 20 years. Although rid­ing high on the suc­cess of her new disc Mis­sion (over 10 mil­lion cop­ies already sold, and Christ­mas sales are likely to be strong) she must nev­er­the­less have some appre­hen­sion about how tomorrow’s con­cert will be received.

There will cer­tainly be a strong con­tin­gent of fans — the online tick­ets were sold out in minutes — how­ever the main body of the audi­ence are sea­son ticket hold­ers who didn’t choose to hear Bar­toli, and the Mil­anese audi­ence can be fam­ously harsh.

Bar­toli is bring­ing a pro­gramme of her greatest hits, such as Handel’s Las­cia la spina, though by includ­ing Mozart’s Exultate, jubil­ate and Rossini’s Non più mesta from Cener­entola, she’s cer­tainly not tak­ing the easy route either. Gram­il­ano will be report­ing back tomorrow…

Illus­tra­tion of Cecilia Bar­toli as Norma by Carlo Orlandi. She is dressed as Giuditta Pasta in the fam­ous paint­ing which hangs in Teatro alla Scala’s museum.

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