A work dedicated to "castratos" and the music that their magic
voices inspired to a lot of composers. The title of the album
refers to the sacrifice castratos did for the sake of music
About the Artist
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For more than two decades, Cecilia Bartoli has undeniably been
one of the leading artists in the field of classical music. All
over the world, her new operatic roles, her concert programs and
projects - in exclusivity with Decca - are expected
with great eagerness and curiosity. The exceptional a of 6
million CDs sold, more than 200 weeks ranking in the
international pop charts, numerous Golden Discs, 4 Grammys (USA),
7 Echos and a Bambi (Germany), two Classical Brit Awards (UK),
the Victoire de la Musique (France) and many other prestigious
awards reflect the immense success of her solo albums "Vivaldi",
"Gluck", "Salieri" and "Opera proibita" and that she is firmly
established as today's "best selling classical artist".
Thus, Cecilia Bartoli brings Classical Music close to the hearts
of millions of people throughout the world. Apart from that, she
is proud that through their popularity, her projects have caused
a wide-spread re-evaluation and rediscovery of the neglected
composers and forgotten repertoire which she puts up for
discussion.
It is not surprising that ert von Karajan, Daniel Barenboim
and Nikolaus Harnoncourt were among the first conductors Cecilia
Bartoli worked with. They noticed her talent at a very early
stage when she had barely completed her vocal studies with her
parents in her home-town Rome. Since then, many further
conductors, pianists and orchestras of highest renown have been
her regular partners. In recent years, her work has be to
focus on collaborations with the most significant period
instrument orchestras (Akademie für Alte Musik, Les Arts
Florissants, Concentus Musicus Wien, Freiburger Barockorchester,
Il Giardino Armonico, Kammerorchester Basel, Les Musiciens du
Louvre, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestra La
Scintilla). Projects with orchestras where Cecilia Bartoli
assumes the overall artistic responsibility have become
increasingly important to her and were crowned by the jointly
developed and performed programmes with the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Cecilia Bartoli regularly sings in the most important concert
halls in Europe, the United States and Japan. Her stage
appearances include prestigious opera houses and festivals such
as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House
Covent Garden in London, La Scala in Milan, the Bavarian State
Opera in Munich, the Salzburg Festival and the Zürich Opera
House, where she has presented many of her operatic roles for the
first time. Most recently, her roles have included Rossini's
Fiorilla in "Il Turco in Italia" at Covent Garden and two
Handelian heroines, Cleopatra (in "Giulio Cesare" with Marc
Minkowski) and Semele (with William Christie) in Zurich.
In 2007/08 Cecilia Bartoli devotes her time to the early 19th
century - the era of Italian Romanticism and Belcanto - and
especially the legendary singer Maria Malibran. Her 200th
birthday on 24th March 2008 was marked by a historical day in
Malibran's birthplace Paris: Cecilia Bartoli sang 3 concerts in
one day as the centre-piece of a Malibran-Marathon at Salle
Pleyel - collaborating with Lang Lang, Vadim Repin, Adam Fischer
and Myung-Whun Chung - while the City of Paris showed her
Barcelona Concert on a big screen outside the Hôtel de Ville,
where Cecilia Bartoli's mobile Malibran Museum was stationed to
honour that special day. Further bicentenary events were the CD
"Maria", the DVD "The Barcelona Concert/Malibran Rediscovered",
extensive concert tours as well as operatic appearances as
Cenerentola, Sonnambula and Halevy's Clari - in a Malibran-opera
which had not been performed since 1829.
Cecilia Bartoli has been endowed with the Italian Knighthood and
is an "Accademico effettivo" of Santa Cecilia, Rome, a French
"Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" and an "Honorary Member" of
the Royal Academy of Music, London.