Opera Proibita

Cecilia Bartoli (Artist, Performer), George Frideric Handel (Composer), Alessandro Scarlatti (Composer), Antonio Caldara (Composer), Marc Minkowski (Conductor), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Orchestra), Jory Vinikour (Performer), Patrick Beaugiraud (Performer), Sebastien d'Hérin (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Cecilia Bartoli, Jory Vinikour, Patrick Beaugiraud, Sebastien d'Hérin
• Orchestra: Les Musiciens du Louvre
• Conductor: Marc Minkowski
• Composer: George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara
• Audio CD (September 13, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B000A6T1HC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,291 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > A to B > Bartoli, Cecilia > All Works Featuring Bartoli

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

Limited Australian pressing. An extraordinary album of dramatic arias written in Rome at a time when opera performance was forbidden by the Church, and female singers were forbidden from singing in public. Decca. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance of Technique Matched by Scholarly Achievement, September 14, 2005

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Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Opera Proibita (Audio CD)

Cecilia Bartoli continues to grow as an artist and as an intelligent contributor to the realm of musically important yet neglected works. The concept of this recital - exhuming works once censored by the Church as inappropriate - include works by Handel, Scarlatti, and Caldara, some of which have made their way onto the concert stage, and some that have fallen into the cracks of the plethora of music from this period.

Bartoli is here supported by the fine conducting of Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. The songs range from the florid bravura of Scarlatti's 'Serafini al nostro canto' to the simplicity and restraint of Caldara's 'Aria di Santa Eugenia. Vanne pentita a piangere'. It is of interest to know that these arias were for the most part written for castrati rather than for the female voice and Bartoli seems to appreciate that fact in her manner of performance.

This is not only an album of gorgeous singing, it is also an important recording of premieres of works that, were it not for Bartoli's insatiable curiosity and intelligence, would probably never have been available for our enjoyment. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 05

56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brava Diva!, October 7, 2005

By 

Erin Matthiessen (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Opera Proibita (Audio CD)

This is singing of astonishing technical fluency and emotional power. I was not surprised by the ease and punch of her runs, trills, ornamentation; that is how Bartoli first impressed us. But in this recital, it is the power of her intense fragility, to borrow from e.e.cummings, that most moves me. The interpretation of "Lascia la spina" is breathtaking and heartbreaking. Like the fabulous Jo Stafford, she uses her amazing breath control as a means of emotional communication.
Through her last few CDs - the Vivaldi album, the Gluck project and now this current CD - Bartoli has emerged as a mature, full-bodied, full-on interpretive artist. There is no one on the current scene to match her for virtuosity, fearless risktaking, or emotional profundity.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars La Dolce Cecilia, November 20, 2005

By 

Valerie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opera Proibita (Audio CD)

This album is the most original and exciting classical CD release of the year! I love what Cecilia has done with this undiscovered music, she has more energy and brilliance than all other opera stars combined. I am actually glad she has stopped doing all this "regular" opera material, I don't need to hear any more Rossini and Mozart. Actually, by the end of 2006 which is Mozart anniversary year, we will all be really sick of Mozart... Based on this Opera Proibita album, I would like to hear ten more hours of early Handel and Caldara.
I wish other artists would leave standard repertoire behind and started singing this great music. Of course, not many people can actually sing these pieces, written for the great castrati, and Cecilia is one of the very few who can sing them with such bravura. The fast, acrobatic arias are dazzling and the slow arias are so beautiful. Vanne Pentita A Piangere is a real gem, and if it wasn't for Cecilia we would never hear it! This aria also displays her messa di voce, and ravishing pianissimo, they are to die for. Castrati were not famous for their upper range, and not required to have high notes as we know them today but I like the way Cecilia spices up these arias with few stratospheric high notes,they are totally brillianr and would make many sopranos green with envy, but she uses them with great taste.
I think the cover of this album is very witty, a tribute to that famous scene in Fellini's film classic. Indeed, in each aria Cecilia gives a us a little encapsulated movie scene. She is so good at making the text come alive, using many colors of her voice to highlight the effect. Her diction is perfect, but in case your Italian is little rusty, all the texts and translations are included. When you read them, you will understand how much feeling Cecilia puts into these mini dramas. Just listen to the way she sings this one word, "Moro, moro..." in Caldo Sangue.
There will always be detractors who will talk nonsense about her "deficient" technique, I understand they are jealous of Cecilia's talent, the little people. For the rest of us, there's always the joy of hearing Cecilia tear into "All'arme Si Accesi Guerrieri", she is at war with bland, insipid music! Thank God we have our Cecilia to remind us that music can be exciting and exhilarating. I love all these stories how people who only listen to rock music heard Cecilia on the radio and went to buy this CD. You should buy ten copies of it and give them to your relatives, I don't think they will hear any yelps in her fioritura, I know many of my friends will be getting this album from Santa this year. Mille Grazie to Cecilia for bringing us this great music!