Maria

about this album

Although her performances of baroque and classical period music are acclaimed by many, Cecilia Bartoli's strength has always been in the bel canto music of her homeland. Both her Covent Garden performances as Fiorilla in Rossini's Il turco in Italia and the recording of the opera on Decca remain my favourite examples of the singer's work: she understands the style of this music. The high degree of expression with which she approaches everything she sings is more suited to the overt emotions of Rossini and his contemporaries than Mozart and Handel, to my mind. So I find it a joy to see her returning to mostly Italian opera of the early nineteenth century for her new album, Maria, which is complemented by a concert tour including two dates at the Barbican in December 2007. The album is well thought out, presented and executed. Bartoli sounds wonderfully fresh and exciting throughout and the accompaniment of Adam Fischer and the Orchestra La Scintilla is exemplary. But what excites is the selection of material, well matched by an imaginatively designed and presented CD case. Earlier in the year, Opera Rara produced a CD of songs and arias connected to or written by the singer Pauline Viardot; Bartoli's new disc explores the career of Viardot's older sister, Maria Malibran, who was one of the greatest singers of the nineteenth century. The most famous member of the García family, Malibran joined her father Manuel (a tenor and composer), her mother Joaquina Sitches (a soprano), h

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Sospiri

Sacrificium

Cecilia Bartoli - The Art of Cecilia Bartoli

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Cecilia Bartoli - A Portrait