Cecilia Bartoli - Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Cecilia BartoliPerformer: Cecilia Bartoli
Composer: Nicola Porpora
Composer: Leonardo Leo
Composer: Carl Heinrich Graun
Composer: Riccardo Broschi
Composer: George Frideric Handel
Conductor: Giovanni Antonini
Orchestra: Il Giardino Armonico
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Deluxe Edition, Extra tracks
CD Release Date: 2009-10-26
Music Label: Decca
Product features:
- BARTOLI CECILIA SACRIFICIUM
Music CD 1
- Come nave in mezzo all'onde* [Siface] from Act II of Siface
- Profezie, di me diceste* [Sedecia] from Sedecia
- Cadrò, ma qual si mira* [Demetrio] from Berenice
- Parto, ti lascio, o cara* [Arminio] from Act II of Germanico in Germania
- Usignolo sventurato* [Siface] from Act II of Siface
- Misero pargoletto* [Timante] from Act III of Demofoonte
- In braccio a mille furie* [Mirteo] from Act III of Semiramide riconosciuta
- Qual farfalla* [Decio] from Act II of Zenobia in Palmira
- Nobil onda [Adelaide] from Adelaide
- Deh, tu bel Dio d'amore ... Ov`è il mio bene?* [Farnaspe] from Act II of Adriano in Siria
- Chi temea Giove regnante* [Berenice] from Farnac
- Quel buon pastor son io [Abel] from Act I of La Morte d'Abel
- Son qual nave [Arbace] from Act III of Artaserse (Pasticcio)
- Ombra mai fu [Serse] from Act I of Serse
- Sposa, non mi conosci [Epitide] from Act III of Merope
Free Music Notes for Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium
Free Music Review: FLORID AT THE EXULTANT TOP OF BLISS!
Hit: 5 Stars
"There I heard the famous thing from Italy, it looks from all the world like a man, though they say it is not. The voice to be sure is neither man's nor woman's but it is more melodious than either; and it warbled so divinely that while I listened I thought myself in paradise". Lydia Milford, 18th century opera goer, after hearing the castrato Tenducci sing.
At long last, Bartoli, who spurred the gold rush to baroque excavations, produces the album dedicated to the opera idols that entranced the 18th century. No audience can be in a greater state of excitement than hers.
This repertoire is spirited, and captures the exuberance as well as the decadence of the castrato music style. Bartoli asserts this is the most difficult music yet she has ever recorded. This is indeed the case. Bartoli is once again back in her medium, and does not disappoint. Her execution is dynamic and virtuosic.
The arias d'agilita are Bartoli's greatest stunts, and prove her extraordinary vocal athleticism. She is the vocal matador of the 21st century. She rides high on famous war-horses of the baroque era which she has festooned and adorned with lavishly embroidered vocal treatments. No furore is indomitable enough that she can't tame. Her bravuras are florid at the exultant top of bliss. It is difficult to imagine how a castrato could have possibly topped her execution.
The album cadence reaches its zenith in "cadro, ma qual si mira" not just for the amazing show of singing prowess but also for the instrumental figurations that the music sets to the text. Here she brings it on. Her melismas are hypnotically raised to circling patterns and whipped to lung bursting lengths. Her singing is fluent, and just as a note is about to run its course, she ricochets it back into life and feisty scala trillatas that end with the same force as they begin. No wonder arias like "cadro" have been vaulted for hundreds of years. ..They are almost impossible! In the same category is also "son qual nave", another famous war-horse that she has been contemplating for a while. Here the astounding messa di voce of her other version found in YouTube is missing; but her attention to the nuances of the ornate passages, and the finesse with which she bounces off the notes in the da capo more than make up for it. The aria "Chi Temea Giove" is perhaps another concerto for larynx, but also exemplifies the excess that made the castrati go out of style. This aria has the works: thunder, horns, more thunder, boisterous orchestration, burst and sprints of rapid coloratura, and yet all this pomp does not amount to more than a vain display of vocalism. Music like this might have signaled not just the obsolescence of itself but disuse of its singers, the castrati.
The pathetic airs have the quicksand and risky pitfalls for a mezzo, even like Bartoli. Their emotional pathos was written and tailored for and by a castrato whose range negotiated effortlessly the low contralto to the high soprano. Excluding "usignolo sventurato", these arias require the lyrical rigor of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater except that here the singer has to do it all by herself in handling the two registers. Though Bartoli strives to reach the voluptuous, warmer, deeper tones, her sweet victory is just as elusive as the battle that never conquers. Nonetheless, hers is a tour de force not to be missed.
Considering the subject matter of this album, the cover is artistically wild but so were the castrati and the audiences' fascination with their androgyny. In an ironic twist of history, these super stars, who fulfilled the church's God-sent ban on songstresses, heralded the supremacy of the soprano voice. They pioneered the grand roles of emperors, warriors, goddesses, and heroines, and ultimately the first burlesque as drag queens. In the end, and just as God draws straight with crooked lines, secular opera raised its curtains to women who in turn seized these heroic roles dressed as drag kings, and the era of the prima donna was dawned. From Cuzzoni to Bartoli, the legacy of the castrati lives on, and through their sacrificium, the beauty of their last breath endures the test of time.
Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium Poster
"The age of the castratos was one of the most dazzling and remarkable in European music history. Seldom has there ever been such a complete fusion of sensuousness and splendor, form and content, poetry and music, and, above all, such a perfection of vocal virtuosity, as was achieved in the glory days of the Baroque era. The legendary art of the castratos continues to exert its fascination even today, and despite the great human sacrifice it exacted, a new assessment of this extraordinary period is surely justified." - Cecilia BartoliCecilia Bartoli uncovers the extraordinary and cruel world of the `Castrati' and sings the glorious music they inspired. The all-new album consists almost entirely of world-premiere recordings of some of the most virtuosic music ever written for the human voice. The arias on the album are drawn from the works of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), Antonio Caldara (c. 1670-1736), Francesco Araia (1709-1770), Carl Heinrich Graun (c. 1703-1759), Leonardo Leo (1694-1744), Leonardo Vinci (1696-1730), Riccardo Brosc hi (c. 1658-1756) and Geminiano Giacomello (c. 1692- 1740).
After extensive research Bartoli has produced not only a new recording, but also a comprehensive study of the castrati and their time period through two lavishly produced and illustrated articles included in the deluxe package.
Sacrificium marks the first collaboration of Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini, and Bartoli since their Grammy® Award-winning The Vivaldi Album ten years ago. This deluxe package is a hardback book (12 x 14 cm) including 2 CDs of music including 11 world-premiere recordings. The extensive booklet includes two essays on the castrati: "Evviva il coltellino!" ("Long live the the little knife") & "Castrato Compendium" (a 108-page "A-Z" of the castrati). The entire project features lavish illustrations and photos throughout along with an additional 44-page libretto.
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