Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album [1999] / Gluck - Italian Arias [2001] / Opera proibita: Handel, Scarlatti A., [2005]

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Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album [1999] / Gluck - Italian Arias [2001] / Opera proibita: Handel, Scarlatti A., [2005]

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For more than two decades, Cecilia Bartoli has undeniably been one of the leading artists in the field of classical music. All over the world, her new operatic roles, her concert programs and recording projects – in exclusivity with Decca – are expected with great eagerness and curiosity. The exceptional amount of 8 million CDs sold, more than 100 weeks ranking in the international pop charts, numerous Golden Discs, four Grammys® (USA), nine Echos and a Bambi (Germany), two Classical Brit Awards (UK), the Victoire de la musique (France) and many other prestigious awards reflect the immense success of for example Opera proibita and her solo albums dedicated to Vivaldi, Gluck and Salieri and that she is firmly established as today’s “best-selling classical artist”.

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Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album [1999] / Gluck - Italian Arias [2001] / Opera proibita: Handel, Scarlatti A., [2005]

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Mezzo Cecilia Bartoli could easily rest on her laurels as one of today's most charismatic, characterful singers for her lively portrayals of Mozart and Rossini heroines. But it's been particularly exciting to observe her growth as an artist in exploring the exuberant world of baroque opera, with its range of pyrotechnic demands–both vocal and emotional. Bartoli's show-stopping virtuosity in a Vivaldi aria from her Live in Italy recital gave a tantalizing sample of her finesse in that style. For The Vivaldi Album, Bartoli conducted extensive research into the composer's manuscripts, (a documentary tracing her quest is planned for subsequent international screening). Although he's best known for his concertos–in typically baroque fashion, two of the arias in fact recycle material from The Four Seasons–Vivaldi was a ferociously prolific composer of operas for the cutting-edge theaters of his time, and the arias gathered here demonstrate the word-painting magic of his music, from the sylvan setting of dueting flageolets in "Di due rai languire costante" to the storm-tossed passions of "Anch'il mar par che sommerga," where Bartoli spins out ripples of rapid-fire coloratura with a gravity-defying accuracy that will leave your head spinning. In addition to many such examples of vocal acrobatics, Bartoli brings exquisite nuance and limpid tone to the delicate echo effects of "Zeffiretti, che sussurrate," and there's no better test for the remarkable flexibility of her range–full and dusky at the bottom and thrilling at the top–than the huge intervallic leaps of "Dopo un'orrida procella." With her naturally large voice, Bartoli can at times tend to histrionic excess (in the recitative to the short aria from "L'Orlando finto pazzo"), but the expressive color of her phrasing is wonderfully matched throughout by the Giardino Armonico's lively panache. All power to Bartoli in her goal of reviving this neglected aspect of Vivaldi's output. –Thomas May

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Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album [1999] / Gluck - Italian Arias [2001] / Opera proibita: Handel, Scarlatti A., [2005]

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On this recording of eight unfamiliar arias by Gluck, Cecilia Bartoli once again demonstrates her peerless vocalism and communicative power. Using texts by Pietro Metastasio, the leading librettist of his day, from whose poetry the disc's title is taken, Gluck composed music of heartwarming and heartbreaking beauty. The arias encompass an infinite variety of style, mood, character, and expression, and Bartoli's mastery of them is complete. The sheer beauty of her voice and her consummately effortless coloratura are unique: endless cascading runs, ranging from below the staff to high D's and E-flat's, flow out flawlessly placed and articulated, like strings of perfect, shining pearls. But what makes her singing so fascinating and unforgettable is Bartoli's ability to color and change her voice to fit the music, going in an instant from lighthearted parody to tempestuous fury, half-mad desperation, and lamentatious pleading. Equally captivating is her ability to create real characters by purely vocal means. The pyrotechnics are stunning, the fiery outbursts thrilling, but it is the slow, lyrical, inward arias that are most moving and memorable. She can spin out a long melody like a golden thread, with a focused, centered sound and a concentrated intensity of expression that cast an irresistible spell over ear and heart. Most of these arias are in da capo form, but she ornaments the repeats freely and imaginatively without becoming excessive. The Berlin Academy for Ancient Music, playing on period instruments tuned to a low A, supports her with a wonderfully clear, transparent sound and great stylistic empathy. –Edith Eisler

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Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album [1999] / Gluck - Italian Arias [2001] / Opera proibita: Handel, Scarlatti A., [2005]

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Cecilia Bartoli's new CD features a collection of music that could not be heard in her native Rome at the start of the 18th century due to Papal censorship. Theaters, the Church felt, were places of evil and corruption and operas led people to immorality. But some music-loving senior members of the priesthood asked composers to write oratorios and cantatas–indeed, operas without staging, essentially–for their own private entertainment. Call it what you will, the music is sensational–by turns virtuosic, gentle, and playful–and always expressive: just right, it seems, for Cecilia Bartoli's temperament. The opening aria on the CD, a call for peace in the name of Jesus, is, in fact, a dazzling martial air with trumpets blaring and the voice going through an amazing array of coloratura fireworks. It shows Bartoli at her most aggressive. The listener is practically hurled back from the speakers when she begins, with rapid-fire runs and trills and cascades of notes, all perfectly in place. Showy arias are offset by several tender ones ("Lascia la spina" from Handel's Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno returns in the composer's Rinaldo, four years later, as the now-famous "Lascia ch'io pianga"), and Bartoli exhibits again, her many, many levels of pianissimo and sensitive phrasing. Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens are just right for this repertoire and back Bartoli up superbly. This is a fascinating project, rivetingly performed and presented. –Robert Levine