Cecilia Bartoli to sing Maria in West Side Story

ByGramilano Reading Time: 2 minutes

Cecilia BartoliAt next year’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival, will sing Maria in ! The exclamation mark is my surprise at the announcement, though I have no doubt that hers will be a lively and touching performance.

And talking of lively…  will be conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. (No exclamation mark.) Norman Reinhardt will be Tony who, according to his agent, has a “dashing stage presence”.

will be the Festival’s theme as next year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Other events include ‘s choreography of the story with the ; Giulietta e Romeo, a little known opera by Italian composer Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli from 1796 which Bartoli has exhumed after 200 years; themed concerts and recitals by violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Milana Chernyavska, The Tallis Scholars, and Juan Diego Florez; and various film versions, including that of .

In the programme notes Bartoli writes, reports the New York Times’ ArtsBeat,

The wish that Bernstein obviously expressed, that in the midst of the Broadway ensemble, the lovers’ roles, Maria and Tony, could be sung by operatic voices, opens up a wonderful new repertoire to me, including hits like Tonight, One Hand, One Heart, I Feel Pretty and Somewhere.

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Graham Spicer, aka 'Gramilano', is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.

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