A few words with Cecilia Bartoli – 2 decades at Salzburg, stress, Rimini, and marriage proposals

Cecilia Bartoli, the singer from Rome, rarely performs in Italy. Her Italian fans travel far to catch her performances in Salzburg, Monte-Carlo, Zurich – her home bases – and on tour in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, where her concerts in the autumn, including those with Lang Lang, will be held.

On 28 September I will sing in Rimini [at the Teatro Amintore Galli] and in 2027, for my 40th career anniversary, I will be at Santa Cecilia with Le Musiciens du Prince for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the opera with which I made my debut at the Rome Opera, where I grew up because my parents were in the chorus.

Though those are just two dates in two years.

I was brought up on bread and music. In the Caracalla Baths, Aida was performed with horses and other animals, and for me it was like going to the zoo. Then, in rehearsals, I would sneak around the pyramids. My friends were the daughters of my parents’ colleagues, so in primary school, if other parents were not musicians, I would ask, “But then what do they do?”

Mama Silvana [Bazzoni, soprano] from Emilia, was my singing teacher, while Papa Pietro Angelo [Bartoli, tenor] was from Romagna. They met at the Teatro Lirico in Spoleto.

And her siblings?

My brother died at 35 of a serious illness, and my sister sings in the chorus at the Parma Opera House.

Her relationship with La Scala, like that of many singers, has been rocky:

I returned in 2013 for a concert with Barenboim. It was a very happy experience, then there are always four hecklers to spoil it – but it was the same reception that Kleiber had for Otello, Pavarotti in ’92, Callas… I’m in very good company. However, if the opportunity comes again, with a good project, why not.

Gramilano was there that evening and can confirm that the protest was pre-arranged, and violent in volume and insults because the majority of the theatre was trying to silence the ridiculous couple of men in the gallery who had decided before the beginning of the concert to boo.

Whatever, Bartoli has a legion of supporters.

It does happen that I get asked for my autograph on bare skin, I receive many marriage proposals, and in China, where the oldest in the audience were 30 years old, two jumped on stage to hug me after a coloratura aria… I’d become Michael Jackson.

Bartoli continues as the director of both Salzburg and Monte-Carlo.

In Salzburg, my contract as director of the Whitsun Festival has been extended until 2031, so that will be 19 years in all. I try to unite tradition and innovation, for example, the Norma on instruments from Bellini’s era, with which we toured Europe.

Monte-Carlo, by the way, is not opera for the elite – spectators come from Genoa, Savona, Nice, Marseilles… Prince Albert follows us passionately, and I once saw the tennis player Federer there, very enthusiastic. People assume that the principality is only materialistic, when in reality it is a beacon of culture, or think of the Casino, yet no one remembers that in Rossini’s time, gambling was held on theatre stages. That opera house is a jewel, built by the same architect, Garnier, who designed the Paris Opera, completed thanks to Monegasque funds, with the understanding that Monte-Carlo too would have its own theatre.

Bartoli was discovered on television in 1985 as a guest on Fantastico, singing with Katia Ricciarelli, who, a year later, would marry the programme’s host, Pippo Baudo, one of Italy’s most famous TV presenters. Her panic didn’t show, though she wasn’t the bubbly singer who emerged soon after.

[The Italian dancer and singer] Lorella Cuccarini was also there [they are the same age], and after that, Maestro Muti called me to La Scala. I had the same panic at the audition with Karajan in the big empty hall in Salzburg. He was with a microphone in the dark, and in his Germanised Italian, he said to me, “Signorina, remember the direction of the musical phrase.” He took me on for Bach’s Mass in B minor, but he died soon after before it was put on. My naturalness fortunately came from the flamenco group I danced in as a girl, when I was once a guest of the great Raffaella Carrà.

Carrà was another Italian dancer and singer, as well as a television presenter (and actress… she made a film with Frank Sinatra), who had a huge following also in Spain and Latin America. Lamberto Curtoni’s opera Raffa in the Sky, based on her life, was staged in 2023 in Bergamo, when Bartoli attended.

I still live with stress, though as an impresario, with young artists, I must be a bit of a psychologist, so I try to make sure I take the pressure off them.

Cecilia Bartoli was talking to Valerio Cappelli, Corriere della Sera

Gramilano Editor

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.