Cecilia Bartoli - Live in ItalyDVD9 - NTSC - 16:9 - All Regions - Italian - LPCM, Dolby Digital 5.1 - 114min. -
Decca, produced 1998, released 2001
This two-hour live recital at Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico comprises 31 items – four chestnuts and the rest fringe. The six early items use period strings, the rest Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s cultivated pianism.
Bartoli is vocal music’s greatest high-speed gymnast. To whiz through Vivaldi’seight-minute Agitata de due venti at 576 semiquavers a minute with neatness, precise pitching and expressive phrase shaping shows an agility and breath control that are frankly unbelievable. Her athletic twists and turns adorn many other items, Rossini especially.
Slower pieces are equally impressive. Her messa di voce shading back to near inaudibility in Caccini’s Amarilli is swooning stuff. Ebullient acting through the voice in Bizet’s Seguidilla makes her the sexiest Carmen I’ve heard.
TRACKLISTING
Caccini: Tu ch'hai le penne, Amore - Amarilli - Al fonte, al prato
Händel: Lascia la spina
Vivaldi: Agitata da due venti
Mozart: Oiseaux, si tous les ans - Un moto di gioia
Schubert: Da quel sembiante appresi - Mio ben ricordati - La pastorella
Viardot: Havanaise - Hai luli!
Berlioz: Zaïde
Bellini: Vaga luna che inargenti - Malinconia, ninfa gentile - Ma rendi pur contento
Donizetti: La conocchia - Amore e morte - Me voglio fà 'na casa
Rossini: Mi lagnerò tacendo (3 songs) - L'Orpheline du Tyrol - Bolero - Riedi al soglio
