In October a new cd was brought out, and when an Italian singer sings Russian opera I am a happy woman, because that combines two of my loves and passions.
Opera came
to Russia in the 18th century. Three emperesses, Anna (1730 -1740) , Elizabeth
(1741- 1761) en Catharina II (1762-1796), ruled the country then. Following the
example of tsar Peter the Great they wanted to modernize Russia and introduce
western fashion at court. Western music was also a part of that.
During the
reign of Anna the first Italian opera company came to St. Petersburg and they
introduced Russia to opera. First opera was only for special state occasions,
but soon it became very popular and there would be opera performances at court
on a regular basis.
In the
archives of the Mariinsky theater in
St. Petersburg Cecilia Bartoli found
these almost forgotten works.
On this cd
are 11 arias by several composers like Araia, Raupach en Manfredini. Cecilia Bartoli performs the arias with
I Barocchisti, with Diego
Fasolis as conductor.
I do not
have a lot of musical knowledge, so do not expect a profound analysis of her
voice or the performance, I leave that to the experts.
I can tell
you I absolutely love this cd. I love music from the baroque period and a
little bit later, and this music falls into that period of time.
Cecilia Bartoli has a rich and supple voice that is never
shrill or hard. She can take her voice anywhere she wants to, she completely
masters every aspect of it. The arias, even two sung in Russian, become more
and more beautiful the more I listen to them.
Superb.
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