Cecilia Bartoli, Symphony Hall, Boston, October 24, 2005

Cecilia Bartoli strode onstage at Symphony Hall yesterday with a two- or three-yard satin train sweeping behind her emerald gown. Her arms swinging, she looked ready for business, like a prizefighter entering the ring.

The Italian mezzo's business this time was to perform 13 arias, 10 of them from her latest best-selling album for Decca, ''Opera Proibita," music written in Rome by Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Antonio Caldara during the period early in the 18th century when public performances of opera were banned for political or religious reasons. Composers responded to the crisis by producing highly operatic oratorios on religious themes -- a solution Handel would remember decades later in London, when the money for opera ran out.

The first two arias presented the two extremes of the program. A brilliant Scarlatti piece with trumpets came first. Bartoli flung out irridescent sprays of notes like a dog shaking off his bath. No disrespect intended -- she's a natural phenomenon. This was followed by a slow, weeping aria by Caldara that displayed Bartoli's Damson plum timbre, her prodigious span of breath, her mastery of ornamentation, dynamics, and echo effects. Her voice is not large, but the emotional wallop it delivers is.

She was expertly abetted by the Orchestra La Scintilla from the Zurich Opera. Led by its Cleveland-born concertmaster, Ada Pesch, this group plays with a grounded energy comparable to Bartoli's, and unlike many early-instrument bands, it is not afraid to play slowly or pianissimo.

In later virtuoso coloratura arias, Bartoli upped the ante, mostly by widening the range (up to an easily produced high D) and increasing the number of notes she took on one breath. If the singer has a flaw, it is that these bravura arias wind up sounding interchangeable because she almost always delivers them at the same tempo. It is in her pliant, affecting delivery of slow music like Handel's ''Lascia la spina" that Bartoli is incomparable. She is also irresistible in lilting, pastoral pieces, where the appeal lies in the swerve she brings to melody, the charming playfulness she brings to text.

The applause was tremendous and Bartoli surrendered four encores -- the melody by Bononcini that became world famous as ''Handel's Largo," a section of Cleopatra's dazzling final aria from Handel's ''Giulio Cesare," a delightful Scarlatti duet with sopranino recorder, and a reprise of the final section of the last number on the official program, an aria from Handel's ''Resurrection."

SOURCE: Boston Globe
URL: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2005/10/24/cecilia_bartoli_delivers_i...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• opera
• cecilia
• bartoli
• aria
• boston
• symphony
• hall

[billinrio]

This recording has been electronically "doctored" in order to speed up the aria. Note how "jerky" the video is. Bartoli has a naturally spectacular voice and doesn't need such "assistance" from would-be fans.

[leopoldbloom]

@billinrio ... An interesting theory, I suppose, but way too conspiratorial. The "jerky" quality is due not to "doctoring" but by zooming to the max on a little Sony Cybershot and bracing myself to hold the shot still (you'll note it settles down a few seconds in). So Cecilia's naturally spectacular voice is, indeed, natural in this video. I'd only note that it's the encore; she's reprising an aria performed earlier in the program and turning up the fireworks a bit as a crowd pleaser. ;-)

[fallenangel272]

i love the fact that she likes to have fun on stage!

[TheWisemonkey8]

Can you believe this music  was banned by religious powers of the time… if it was performed the punishments might include imprisonment and death?

[l337m45t3r42]

@philipc67

She is SHOWING that she has fun with her music, stop critisizing her, it made me feel happier, reading your comment made me crabby, thank you so much!

[spenzur]

@billinrio Not true. IVe heard her live twice and she has the best trills from any singer at the moment. She comes second after Sutherland IMO. People can say what they want about Cecilia, but (unlike most singers) she has real trills.

[billinrio]

I'm not talking about the camera jerking around; I'm saying that Cecilia is, like a puppet, because the recording has been doctored in order to make her trills appear faster than they are.

[ManIhTwoLinJay]

@billinrio I would like to see you hold the camera still when zoomed in all the way!

[JoyceJKo]

holy shit

[jaybirdfleming]

This clip wasn't "doctored." I was there for this performance and it was a true tour de force! An amazing evening of stunning singing! :-)

[vocalissimo1]

Jerky singing and very stagey jumping around to the music. I don't buy it.

[Bethalaine]

I seriously just came about five times.