Castrata Diva
Cecilia Bartoli’s latest vanity release bucks protocol to present an album heavy on historical concept.
The classical recording industry has long feasted on the popularity of operatic solo records, especially during the last few years of industry-wide decline in CD sales. Incidentally, as record companies run out of ways to sell the standard repertoire to collectors who already own it five times, baroque and early opera are also selling well.
The coloratura mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has managed to combine both of these formats in her newest CD release. Sacrificium is her take on twelve major arias from the lost repertoire of the Castrato. The CD has been marketed high and low, using the tag line “The Sacrifice of Hundreds of Thousands of Boys in the Name of Music” and through a viral internet scavenger hunt that planted riddles on blog sites.
The packaging of the first release, a Deluxe 2-CD Limited Edition
Sacrificium is clever both in its concept and as a way of refashioning Ms. Bartoli’s appeal and repertoire. In recent years she has gravitated toward recordings and concert performances (as many superstar vocal artists do), and has taken on fewer operatic parts. In live appearances, she sticks close to home, and continues to sing the mezzo repertoire of Mozart and Handel with aplomb and agility.
On CD, rather than just milk well-known favorites, she has admirably introduced audiences to forgotten repertoire from Rossini and composers little-known today like Halevy and Viardot. The composers included in Sacrificium include such household names as Porpora, Leo, Araia, Graun, Caldara, and (not that) Leonardo Vinci.
While there is much to be learned about the castrato from the ornate accompanying booklet, Bartoli’s singing lends few insights to authenticity. Liner notes tell us that the castrati were not necessarily preferable to female singers; rather, they were simply easier to train. Add, too, that a boy could be trained from youth while a girl must wait until after puberty to find her voice, and we get an idea of the very luxurious attitude toward the sacrifice in question.
Ms. Bartoli’s singing here is practically beside the point. Her style has always meant a certain breathy quality, quite in evidence here. This has alienated opera house purists, yet it may be precisely her appeal in the vaguely crossover market she has come to occupy. As her voice has aged, it has also tended toward an undesirable cluckiness in the lower register. Sacrificium displays these flaws, and some pitch imprecision in her coloratura, but the singing is emotive, committed, attractively colored and – dare I say – fierce.
Her partners in this exercise are the eminent and thoroughly Italianate period group Il Giardino Armonico, led by Giovanni Antonini. They carry the day, with a lean and sensitive accompaniment that is never afraid to burst forth with uncouth rustic fervor when called upon. The recorded sound is sumptuous and especially gratifying in its spacious bass response.
Unfortunately Vinci’s “Chi temea Giove regnante,” one of many world-premiere recordings on this disc, is marred by a thunderbolt sound effect which upon repetition grows tiresome and then offensive. If only Ms. Bartoli and her producers had sacrificed this cheap effect – in the name of music.
La Cieca is happy to welcome Our Own squirrel to the ranks of parterre.com contributors.
Speaking of “Son qual nave”, WHO IS THIS????:
My god, this woman is AMAZING!!! Compare to La Cluckola’s version:
I think Baroque music is something people either love or hate; no neutrality allowed. I’d rather sing it than listen to it. I sang in Radamisto in the 80s and that was fun. And I sang a concert of Heinrich Schutz in college, which is gorgeous music. But most Baroque music is bores me silly. Of course, some is more Barpoquen then others. (I couldn’t resist).
And that Julia Lezhneva is amazing. These are videos from 2007 when she was only 18.
And more…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZND9XCPYdA&feature=related
I agree that terming this CB’s “latest vanity release” contains all sorts of negative connotations that aren’t at all deserved. I’ve read some inane arguments in the past that Bartoli only explores forgotten repertoire because she doesn’t care to be compared to other singers. Well she’s pretty much sung and recorded the standard Mozart and Rossini catalogue, so what’s the alternative?
It’s hard to say if Bartoli is a true trailblazer or simply canny about connecting to trends; however, before her Vivaldi CD there were relatively few Vivaldi operas on CD and no recitals of Vivaldi arias that I know of, now there are numerous examples of each, with Vivica Genaux’s Vivaldi CD out next month (and Magdalena Kozena’s already released in Europe but somehow not generally available in the US). And there have been quite a few castrato-driven collections in recent years: Geneaux’s Farinelli and Kasarova’s and Jaroussky’s Carestini CDs are just a few examples.
As for squirrel’s review, it covers certain bases, but I’d honestly ask if he’d ever heard a single example of Neopolitan Baroque before listening to this CD. Operas by Porpora, Vinci and Graun have been recorded, as well as considerable music by Caldara (who was also featured in Bartoli’s Opera Proibita CD). His review sort of implies that the 100 minutes of music is one florid extravaganza after another–that is clearly not true–there are as many adagio pieces as allegros. In fact I’ve always preferred Bartoli in slow music finding her coloratura too herky-jerky and breathy (my problem with much of Horne’s florid singing also). An interesting comparison could be made between this CD and Karina Gauvin’s recently CD of Porpora arias and/or Simone Kermes’ CD of Neopolitan arias (now Kermes is a diva for this group–probably certifiably crazy–who else would offer an encore of Weill’s “Surabaya Johnny” after an all-Vivaldi concert as she did at Weill a couple years ago, or wear some of the lunatic outfits she always does–check out her Youtube clips)–but she’s nearly always interesting and undeniably exciting, if mannered beyond belief.
As for me, I find “Sacrificium” less compelling than either the Vivaldi or the Opera Proibita CDs mostly because the music isn’t terribly interesting. The Caldara is the best but the rest can’t compare to the Handel/Vivaldi/Scarlatti on the earlier programs.
sorry, forgot the v
But I still like this one better, camel toe and all..
Oh, goodness; my typing was horrible.
Thanks, all, for your mostly supportive comments – this is my first review and not a subject I might have picked for myself had it not been, alas, an audition. But it was fun and challenging!
Many of you raise the right questions, about whether these kind of CDs are really a cash cow or whether it’s just a publicity engine – I don’t have the data, but I imagine it’s somewhere in the middle – lucrative but not too. Also, as to whether she is really interested in this repertoire or just cannily connecting the commercial dots. Again, probably somewhere in between.
As for the Florez quote, that YouTube ruined the CD business – that’s really kindof LOL funny (though not at all believable)
Squirrel OUT
23 & 25
H: I can’t say that I agree about some of the music not being interesting. I find a all of it interesting, and worth reviving. (However, the oratorio arias are not really a welcome addition as she could have covered them in her Proibita cd and given that space to Hasse or more Vinci.)
Whatever her motives for recording this unknown music the advantages to the audience is clear: the rediscovery and the hopeful introduction of Vinci, Hasse and Porpora into mainstream (baroque) repertoire.
Handel (and Bach obviously) are really not reflective of the true state of opera in the 18th century. It would be like Britten or Menotti becoming the most performed 20th century composer in the next 100 – 200 years because say Strauss and Puccini would be considered as second rate or too commercial. (Can’t think of a better comparison. But I hope I make my point though. Also, I specifically use Bach cos he is often used as a standard against which music of that time is judged against. And this becomes especially dangerous when one considers that he never wrote for the theatre.)
My main reservation about this recital is the conspicuous lack of Hasse – arguably the most famous composer during his own lifetime. And with only one Vinci aria in favour of the Graun and Araia contributions is somewhat disappointing for this baroque nerd.
I love this disc but not a fan of CB’s vocal overacting.
S: I too think the sound effects in the Vinci aria is rubbish.
i played the Vinci for Mrs. Squirrel, not a musician herself but a keen observer of taste, and she laughed out loud – with that yougottabekidding look.
Wow that Julia Lezhneva is a technical machine. Everything, every approach, wow. But in that Cinderella I would like to see a little joy. She only seems to show emotion once she is done. But she was young here, that will come, hopefully, since it would be a shame otherwise.
What do you mean Harry by saying ‘baroque style shlock.’ Its baroque music, if you dont like it-fine, thats a matter of taste-but how is it schlock. And because she didn’t progress to Carmen you call it “progress retardation”. What the hell does that mean? Maybe thats not the right role for her, ever think of that? Taking Bartoli to task for not going down a less traditional route and redicovering forgotten music is like castigating Callas or Sutherland for reviving old Bel Canto operas.
Marquise – Edda Moser bravely tried some Hasse at the Semper Opera once. I thought she was swell – very wild, but the Dresden audience was in shock, and she even got booed. She stopped singing him after this incident.