MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: The Art of Cecilia Bartoli

"Reaching out to the ears and to the heart, a fine round-up of Bartoli's opera triumphs." (Gramophone)

"For every era or composer she chooses, her style is exactly right" (NZ Listener)

Cecilia Bartoli is an international vocal superstar. She has not only achieved exceptional success in the opera house and on the concert platform but also enjoyed a uniquely successful and influential recording career.

This new personal collection presents The Art of Cecilia Bartoli in 17 arias and duets from Vivaldi to Verdi including two previously unreleased duets with Luciano Pavarotti.

The Brindisi (drinking song) from Verdi's La traviata is among the most well known of all operatic 'hits'. …Chiedi all'aura… from Donizetti's most popular opera L'elisir d'amore features Bartoli as the wealthy and beautiful Adina who has little time for the love of the peasant Nemorino (one of Pavarotti's greatest stage roles).

Bartoli and Pavarotti bring a uniquely Italian style to these popular duets recorded in Milan in July 1997 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Guiseppe Verdi under Riccardo Chailly.

The two tracks representing Handel are both from the complete Decca recording of his opera Rinaldo. In Scherzano sul tuo volto Bartoli is joined by American counter-tenor star David Daniels as Rinaldo, while Lascia ch'io pianga presents Cecilia Bartoli at her most direct, finding a rare purity of emotion in one of Handel's most beautiful and popular solos.

In a short time The Vivaldi Album has taken its place as one of the landmark recordings of recent times. The album brought Vivaldi's little known operatic music to a huge audience who thrilled at the beauty and excitement of Bartoli's commitment to these 'forgotten' jewels, two of which are included here. Cecilia Bartoli continued her mission to bring the forgotten glories of the past to a new public with Gluck Italian Arias. Se mai senti shows Gluck at his most revolutionary, spinning a melody of utter simplicity which in Bartoli's deeply felt interpretation is supremely touching.
Bartoli's meteoric rise to worldwide acclaim was largely based on performances in Rossini and Mozart roles. Mozart is represented here by five portraits of young love; the page Cherubino's two arias (recorded with Claudio Abbado) from Le nozze di Figaro are contrasted with the maid Susanah's cheeky Un moto di gioia from the same opera.

In two of Mozart's most famous duets Bartoli is joined by bass-baritone star Bryn Terfel. The popular favourite La ci darem la mano in which the peasant girl Zerlina is wooed by the dangerously seductive Don Giovanni is contrasted with the pure joy of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte as she finds her true love in the bird-catcher Papageno.

Rossini has always been central to Cecilia Bartoli's career and the three tracks included here represent the three great roles in which Bartoli has thrilled audiences both on stage and disc. Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia is a role still very much in Bartoli's stage repertoire and she is again joined by Bryn Terfel in a duet from Rossini's most popular comic opera Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Rossini's Cinderella La Cenerentola has been Bartoli's signature role, and the thrilling vocal fireworks of the finale Non piu mesta… from the complete Decca recording, again conducted by Riccardo Chailly, show her at her most technically spectacular and emotionally thrilling.

The Art of Cecilia Bartoli is an accessible and popular introduction to one of the world's greatest musical stars