Cecilia Bartoli (is)..delectable. The Italian mezzo-soprano's latest CD, "The Salieri Album," has sold  300,000 copies, a rare phenomenon for a classical recording...

(As) today's most acclaimed classical superstars, one who can write her own ticket almost anywhere she wants.... (she was) in splendid voice, clearly enjoying her singing as much as her adoring fans... a vocal artistry at the highest level...  her richly colored and flexible voice and an amazing technique that allows her to negotiate the coloratura twists and turns like a Maserati hugging the curves....

Warm and endearing stage presence shined through as directly as her singing, with its impeccable diction and deep expressivity... the rapturous hush to which she scaled her sable mezzo in the final portion of Rinaldo's aria from "Armida," or the palpable heartbreak she brought to a dramatic scena from "La Scuola de' Gelosi"...

As a footnote, Bartoli is on a crusade to resurrect Antonio Salieri, the composer whose 39 operas fell out of fashion, because they were considered too long and ponderous,  for changing tastes, when Beethoven began to rise to prominence.

As usual, under the guise of "literary license in the arts", Saleri is portrayed wrongly, in "Amadeus" as a jealous villan who poisoned Mozart.

With Truth being Stranger than Fiction.......Why is is SO necessary for film makers to DISTORT History????? Is it laziness, or lack of creativity???? Or an Agenda???
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Thanks to Anne Repepi
BARTOLI SHINES IN SHOWCASE OF SALIERI'S WORK
Popular mezzo-soprano kicks off 5-city U.S. tour

Chicago Tribune
By John von Rhein
Tribune music critic
February 19 2004

Cecilia Bartoli didn't need to hit the road like a rock performer to tout her latest album.

The delectable Italian mezzo-soprano's latest CD for Decca, "The Salieri Album," has sold close to 300,000 copies since its release last fall, a rare phenomenon for a classical recording. She's one of today's most acclaimed classical superstars, one who can write her own ticket almost anywhere she wants.

But there she was at Orchestra Hall on Wednesday night, performing selections from her new Salieri disc to launch a five-city U.S. tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Bartoli was in splendid voice, clearly enjoying her singing as much as her adoring fans, who paid up to $110 a ticket to hear one of her rare Chicago engagements.

If this was a fancy plug for the CD, let's have more such events, since the concert was about vocal artistry at the highest level, never mind hawking a record album.

Swaddled in aubergine silk atop yards of black taffeta, the diva needed only an 18th Century powdered wig to resemble the forlorn, lovesick and proud operatic characters she brought to life so vividly.

Bartoli lately has made something of a crusade of resurrecting the stage works of Antonio Salieri, the long-forgotten Viennese court composer whose 39 operas fell out of fashion when Beethoven began his rise.

If anybody paid attention to him in recent years, it was because the play and film "Amadeus" portrayed him, wrongly, as a villain who poisoned Mozart.

Salieri, as Bartoli's performance showed us, was no musical genius in Mozart's league (who was?) but a composer who could craft effective, sometimes brilliant and even compelling arias for the reigning divas of his day.

His operas are too long and ponderous for today's taste. But sampled as a kind of smorgasbord, they sound delightful.

With her richly colored and flexible voice and an amazing technique that allows her to negotiate the coloratura twists and turns like a Maserati hugging the curves, Bartoli drew each of the eight Salieri arias deep into her being and gave them back to us as involving little dramas and comedies.

The period instruments orchestra gave her the confiding support she needed, so much so that it was often hard to separate her flutey and oboey sound from that of the solo instruments.

Through it all, Bartoli's warm and endearing stage presence shined through as directly as her singing, with its impeccable diction and deep expressivity.

One won't soon forget the rapturous hush to which she scaled her sable mezzo in the final portion of Rinaldo's aria from "Armida," or the palpable heartbreak she brought to a dramatic scena from "La Scuola de' Gelosi," which uncannily anticipates the Countess' arias in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro." Great music? Perhaps not. But a great singer can make it seem so.

Bartoli ended her program (which also included arias by Vivaldi and Gluck) with a comic novelty from Salieri's "La Cifra," in which she charmingly rattled off the names of instruments as they were being played. It brought the audience to its feet, loudly cheering for encores.

The diva obliged with another Salieri piece and a flashy coloratura showpiece by Haydn that was sensationally sung.

Metromix.com: Bartoli shines in showcase of Salieri's work
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/reviews/critics/
mmx-ggp1drtie.16feb18,0,7744938.story?coll=mmx-critics_heds