Cecilia Bartoli’s new album celebrates the life and career of the most famous opera singer of the eighteenth century: the castrato Farinelli. This Decca disc marks three decades of Bartoli’s collaboration with the label, the first being Rossini Arias which was released in August 1989. Over sixty CDs later comes Farinelli which will be issued […]
Sacrificium
Salzburg, L’italiana in Algeri – the role Cecilia Bartoli was born to play
Cecilia Bartoli was made to sing Isabella. Rossini wrote L’italiana in Algeri 200 years ago, but he could have been thinking of her. She waited until she was 50 to sing the role, though having pushed her voice into the stratosphere with feats of extreme-singing in her Sacrificium programme [the castrati repertoire] she hindered her […]
Cecilia Bartoli – the enchantress casts her spell at the Lucerne Festival
After a couple of years of not hearing La Bartoli live, I was a little apprehensive before her concert at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, KKL, after having read Rupert Christiansen’s Telegraph review of her concert with Rolando Villazón last December describing her voice as ‘worn and threadbare’, having followed her calendar with its […]
Cecilia Bartoli cancels her American tour
Cecilia Bartoli has withdrawn from her US Tour “due to unforeseen circumstances”. The tour was to kick off in six days time from Santa Monica, five concerts in all, taking in Irvine and finishing in Berkeley on 2 April. The Los Angeles Times reports that organisers Universal Music Arts & Entertainment were “unable to elaborate on the reasons […]
First reactions for Cecilia Bartoli as Norma
Who loves Cecilia Bartoli, will probably love her Norma. Her eyes sparkle, she rolls her ‘R’s, breathes the piani, and tackles the coloratura easily. Her stage début in Norma wants to get rid of the existing performance tradition; to free interpreters from the shadow of Maria Callas. Bartoli’s Norma is a celebration of her own personal style: somewhat mannered, but perfect, and always unmistakable. says Bayerischer […]
Bartoli’s back on the treasure trail with her Norma video
After offering clues taken from ‘webisodes’ filmed during the recording of Cecilia Bartoli’s cd Mission, which eventually led to the name of the composer featured on the disc, Decca are being cunning again by offering ‘exclusive content’ to stir up interest in La Ceci’s latest project. Following this link, it is possible to play a little […]
Cecilia Bartoli is awarded the 2012 Herbert von Karajan Music Prize
The Italian opera singer and director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Cecilia Bartoli, has won this year’s Herbert von Karajan Music Prize, which comes with a sum of €50,000. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Foundation Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Clemens Borsig, said Bartoli was honoured for her constant quest to discover forgotten treasures of […]
Cecilia Bartoli meets her match: wax and feathers in the musée Grévin
The musée Grévin in Paris has unveiled its Cecilia Bartoli waxwork. She joins the good company of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. The waxwork wears the costume designed for her “Sacrificium” tour. Looking at her likeness Bartoli commented, “She is more beautiful than me. If I get sick, she can sing.”
Bartoli débuts in Australia – the Perth audiences loved her
Well of course it was going to be a success. Bartoli’s Australian fans snapped up tickets for her first visit to their country. But after all the expectation there is the risk of an anticlimax. Not here. Not for Bartoli. After the first concert in Perth The West Australian wrote: From the roar of welcome as she […]
Cecilia Bartoli and her (highly personal) view of the Italian music scene
Looking at the thriving specialist ensembles working from and in Italy today, Bartoli looks like a pioneer, but, she says, in straitened economic times it’s not easy for musicians. Long based in Rome, she now lives in Zurich with her partner Oliver Widmer, a member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble — they appear together […]
