Strauss Waltz? Nutcracker? Holy music? This year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations at the Monte Carlo Opera will be in the company of a ghost. ” Webber’s Phantom of the Opera which I finally managed to bring home,” she explains. Cecilia Bartoli, an opera singer who has won five Grammys (the same number as Pavarotti, with whom she has recorded numerous duets), and has sold over ten million albums. “Since 1986 it has been performed all over the world, never on its own stage. The musical takes place at the Opéra Garnier in Paris. An incredible love story unfolds between the boxes and basements of a nineteenth-century theater. AND Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo, created by the same architect, is a smaller version of its French twin. Even the chandelier, the one that falls on the audience in the story, is identical. Of course, before the debut, you must remember to gain a good foothold!
Romana, 57 years old, world opera singer, director since 2012. Trinity Festival in Salzburg (discovered in a less than stellar state of health, she made it an event not to be missed), now stands at the helm (the only woman) of a venue in the Principality of Monaco, “right next to the Casino,” and unveils her first billboard. In addition to “family reunification”Phantom of the Opera(new production created in collaboration with Temple Live Entertainment and Broadway Italia, in the original version with the participation of specialists Ramin Karimlu and Amelia Milo, directed by Federico Bellone, December 16–31), operas, concerts, recitals: Verdi’s Requiem Mass (conducted Barenboim, November 2), tribute Caruso (conducted by Pappano, Kaufmann sings November 19), Don Carlos (directed by Davide Livermore, November 22/26), Honor Rusticana, Gianni Schicchi, Daughter of the Regiment, Giulio Cesare in Egypt. Handel (January 24/30), dir. Livermore and Bartoli as Cleopatra: “A woman in love who, however, uses her brain, while her brother only knows how to cut off heads,” explains the Baroque queen, announcing her next tour in the company of the Egyptian sovereign, “in Paris, Brussels , Luxembourg and Amsterdam in October. And then in July in Vienna.”
Rolex, with Cecilia Bartoli hands go to the Opera
What plans do you have for the new theater once the Festival of Pentecost resumes?
“Theft of casino regulars…
This is not his only pop foray. In the album dedicated to Farinelli, she presented herself with a mustache and beard, playing on gender fluidity. Do you like to provoke the academic world?
“Farinelli was a celebrity, a real pop star, like many castrati opera singers. They had female voices inside male bodies with a range of up to 3 octaves. Performances that caused amazement. Illusion was the basis of Baroque taste. My goal in working on this repertoire is to return this type of sound to the female body. But our lung capacity is not the same.”
She has been crowned queen of color, bel canto, and now baroque, for calling attention to a repertoire considered reserved for specialists. Now very popular. Are you having fun?
“Very. This is music that gives miracles, fireworks. That’s why I created an orchestra of young people from all over the world. The idea came to me when I was working on a project about Italian composers at the Russian court of the eighteenth century: to perform these jewels it was necessary to create group of specialists with ancient instruments. I plucked up the courage and knocked on the castle, asking Caroline and Albert Monaco for help. And since 2016, I have had adventure companions, Les musiciens du Prince of Monaco, who accompany me on tour, in Salzburg, everywhere”.
There are also many friends on the account, Pappano, Lang Lang…
“I met Lang Lang on the occasion of the honor of Maria Malibran. And now he accompanies me in the performance of arias by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti. We met Pappano a lifetime ago. During the days of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We were there, there was a difficult climate. And then we did a lot together. So much Rossini.”
Rof/Singing queens, leaders and mothers: the rediscovery of Rossini’s lost ark is entrusted to a team of talented and courageous “researchers” in the genre of travesty
Performing Rossini, he charmed Pippo Baudo. What do you remember about your debut?
“Today we talk a lot about talent, but Baudo already brought debutants to television in 1985. Paradise was selecting young people at the conservatory, and they chose me for Fantastico 6. I sang Rosina’s aria and then a duet with Ricciarelli. From then on I started working and they started dating. The magic of Rossini.”
On the bill, his name appears next to John Malkovich’s. What’s happening?
“In The Voice of Their Master we meet the Neapolitan composer and master of the greatest voices of the eighteenth century, Nicola Porpora, with his students Farinelli and Caffarelli. A theatrical fairy tale and at the same time a musical feast, which we will bring to the Barocchissimo tour at the Vienna State Opera, with the great castrato arias of the Baroque era, in a “duel of genres”.
Francesco Lanzillotta, the Roman maestro, conducts a rare title at the Rossini Opera Festival: “Pop or opera, a crossover with Stravinsky already existed”
Will there be another album?
“Next year. I’ll start with Casta Diva and work my way around it, creating new connections.”
Often, when people talk about his career, they highlight his entrepreneurial side, as if it were a flaw. Right?
“A woman can’t do everything…” he replies, laughing.
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