Crossover Media

This fall, best-selling mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli looks to the little-known operas of 18th-century Russia on her upcoming release, Cecilia Bartoli– St Petersburg. These Baroque musical treasures were written by Italian and German composers working for the Russian court: specifically, Francesco Araia (at the court 1735–59), Hermann Friedrich Raupach (1759–61), Vincenzo Manfredini (1761–63), and Domenico Cimarosa (1787–91). The works were commissioned under the rules of empresses Anna Ioannovna (1730–40), Elizaveta Petrovna (Elizabeth, 1741–62), and Catherine II (known as Catherine the Great, 1762–96). The three rulers continued and completed the wholesale redefinition of Russia into an enlightened European state that began under Peter the Great. Cecilia Bartoli – St Petersburg, which releases on October 14, aims to shed new light on this incredible and momentous time for Russia, while simultaneously exploring the first instances of operatic music writing in the country.

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The Salzburg Festival, reduced this year, roars back in 2021 / The New York Times

Posted At: December 10, 2020

Classical music's most storied annual event announces plans to return to pre-pandemic scale next summer. It was the great exception in a summer for the performing arts almost entirely scratched out by the pandemic. Its calendar reduced and its audiences distanced, but still defiantly ambitious, the Salzburg Festival, classical music's most storied annual event, went forward in August with a robust sc...
There is much to savor in the 11 arias on Cecilia Bartoli's 'Farinelli' / parterre box

Posted At: April 22, 2020

While isolated opera-lovers intently navigate the deluge of streaming videos being made available, I've been listening rather than viewing. The onslaught of recital discs devoted to 17th and 18th century vocal music continues, so I'm working my way through nearly two dozen releases from the past months for several round-up reviews. Today brings new offerings from Cecilia Bartoli, Karina Gauvin, Simon...
Cecilia Bartoli channels castrato Farinelli / Interlochen Public Radio

Posted At: November 26, 2019

The castrato Farinelli was one of the most celebrated singers of the eighteenth century. In a new album on the Decca label, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli performs repertoire that was written specifically for Farinelli to sing. Castrated when he was about 12 years old, Farinelli (born Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi in 1705) had become a star on the Italian operatic stage by the time he was 20.&nb...
Cecilia Bartoli - Antonio Vivaldi makes 'WQXR Best Classical New Releases of January 2019'

Posted At: January 31, 2019

Cecilia Bartoli's first collection of Vivaldi arias, 1999's The Vivaldi Album, was a surprise smash hit, selling more than half-a-million copies and a winning her a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance. Two decades later, the nature of music consumption has changed radically (the notion of this CD selling even half as many copies is beyond far-fetched), but Bartoli's resplendent voice ...
Cecilia Bartoli - Antonio Vivaldi is the WFMT: Featured New Release

Posted At: January 19, 2019

Almost 20 years after her historic Vivaldi album, Cecilia Bartoli turns to the composer once again for a new solo recording. The album is a glorious collection of Vivaldi arias, performed with the French orchestra Ensemble Matheus under Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Bartoli's 1999 recording redefined her status as a rescuer of neglected and forgotten music, in her dual role as meticulous researcher and passio...
Cecilia Bartoli is back, for Dolce Duello with Cappella Gabetta / stereophile

Posted At: December 31, 2017

Cecilia Bartoli is back. After far too long without a new "solo" recording venture, the phenomenal mezzo-soprano returned to the microphone this past March, three months before she turned 51, to record nine Dolce Duello (Sweet Duels) with the 1759 baroque cello of Sol Gabetta. Supported by Sol's ensemble, Cappella Gabetta, under the leadership of her violinist brother, Andrés Gabetta, the two ...
Bartoli, a tour de force in Salzburg's Ariodante / The Hamilton Spectator

Posted At: August 23, 2017

What can pack a wallop and bowl over just about anything and anybody? If you said a 113 km/hr wind storm that ripped through the Salzburg area uprooting trees and knocking out electrical power for many, give yourself a pat on the back. If you also said Cecilia Bartoli in the Salzburg Festival's production of Handel's opera, "Ariodante," give yourself a double pat on the back. Bartoli was nothing ...
Bartoli, Pappano return to Rome for Bach & Mozart at Auditorium Parco Della Musica / theartsdesk review

Posted At: February 6, 2017

Wherever you are in the world, opportunities to see Cecilia Bartoli perform are hard to come by. A one-off chance to see her sing Mozart in Rome was not to be missed. This was a rare homecoming for Bartoli. Born in Rome, she studied at the city's Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia where many members of the orchestra teach. A quarter-century and more ago, she made her name in Mozart: as in irrepressibly c...
Cecilia Bartoli Q&A w theguardian

Posted At: November 22, 2016

‘There is no guilty pleasure in the world of music. I feel guilty when I am not making music' - Cecilia Bartoli. For more than two decades, Cecilia Bartoli has indisputably been one of the leading artists in the field of classical music. Her new opera roles, concert programmes and recording projects – exclusively on Decca – are eagerly awaited all over the world. The enorm...
Cecilia Bartoli's Norma is a furious triumph / The Telegraph review

Posted At: August 7, 2016

The prospect of seeing great Italian soprano Cecilia Bartoli as Bellini's Norma was both enticing and disquieting. It's one of the towering roles in the dramatic soprano repertory, and anyone lucky enough to have seen Maria Callas or Joan Sutherland as Norma counts it as one of the great experiences of their lives. But Bartoli? She's a soprano who's made the distracted sorceress...
An 'ambition realised' says Cecilia Bartoli of her Edinburgh festival debut / The Times

Posted At: August 2, 2016

Diva, what diva? Cecilia Bartoli announced her Edinburgh International Festival debut yesterday with a performance exuding sweetness and light. The world-famous mezzo-soprano obligingly posed for pictures on every balcony of the Festival Theatre, happily waving her hands or rattling her pearls whenever a gesture was required. This press call was all in a good cause: she takes the title role this Friday i...
Watch Cecilia Bartoli hold an F# for 9 bars / CLASSIC fm

Posted At: July 19, 2016

Cecilia Bartoli is amazing. We know this. But sometimes, you just want it reiterated and proven in the shape of an amazing clip of her virtuosity in action. Here she is singing ‘Son qual nave ch'agitata' from Riccardo Broschi's baroque opera Artaserse - the long note we're talking about is pretty much the first thing she does. Watch her face throughout - the emotions change, the tone grows and ...
'The List' profiles Cecilia Bartoli

Posted At: July 6, 2016

A name that is shared with the patron saint of music, even saying ‘Cecilia' out loud – with ch's and Italianate long eeee-type vowels – evokes the sound of music in the air. Add the surname Bartoli and an opera phenomenon is the result. Born in Rome, to parents who were both professional singers (her mother was her singing teacher), perhaps it was inevitable that Cecilia Bartoli would h...
Cecilia Bartoli receives the Polar Music Prize / Deutsche Welle

Posted At: June 16, 2016

How does a soprano screw in a light bulb? She stands on the ladder, holds up the bulb - and the world revolves around her. Along the lines of that old musicians' joke, Cecilia Bartoli is the anti-diva, the antithesis of the singer who's either overweight or anorexic, lives only in, by and for the art and - depending on the severity of her neurotic episodes - tends to cancel on short notice. Hard-...
Cecilia Bartoli wins 2016 Polar Music Prize / AP

Posted At: February 11, 2016

Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli who brought back "long-lost music" to listeners has won the 2016 Polar Music Prize along with Swedish hit songwriter Max Martin. They will be invited to accept the award, which includes 1 million kronor ($120,000) each in prize money, at a ceremony in Stockholm in June. Bartoli, a mezzo-soprano from Rome with a vocal range of three octaves who has sung in the world...
Cecilia Bartoli interview featured in Gramophone Magazine

Posted At: November 6, 2014

The best-selling mezzo Cecilia Bartoli graces the cover of Gramophone's special November issue. In her new album, St. Petersburg, Bartoli opens a window on a hidden period of musical life in the Russian city, during which three visionary tsaritsas allowed music to thrive. Gramophone's Editor-in-Chief James Jolly went to meet the opera star to discover how she managed to gain access to the Mariins...
Cecilia Bartoli - St Petersburg / WFMT New Release Of the Week

Posted At: November 2, 2014

Cecilia Bartoli returns with a new album of world premiere recordings, exploring the Baroque musical treasures of Tsarist Russia. Featuring music written by Italian and German composers working for the Russian court, this album sheds new light on an incredible and momentous time for Russia, shaping its politics and culture towards the West. Mostly sung in Italian, the album also offers the first opportun...
Cecilia Bartoli - St. Petersburg / New York Times review

Posted At: October 24, 2014

It's fun to imagine the reaction of record-company executives when Cecilia Bartoli, the Italian mezzo-soprano and best-selling recording artist, announced her latest passion. She has made a specialty of performing long-neglected music. Even her 1999 Vivaldi Album, which first shot her to the top of the classical charts, was a gamble on a composer popularly associated with violin music. Since then, s...
Cecilia Bartoli Soars at Salzburg / New York Times interview

Posted At: October 23, 2014

When Cecilia Bartoli became artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2012, she celebrated by organizing the first festival under her leadership around Cleopatra. "Since a woman was in charge for the first time, I chose to focus on this fascinating woman," she said in an interview here. The choice of program was typical of the opera superstar's hands-on approach to her new assignment. The...