CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW
When Opera Was Forced Under
the Radar
By Anthony Tommasini
Oct. 21, 2005
Even the most ardent fans of the mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli must sometimes question whether she is making full use of her remarkable gifts and extraordinary popularity. By the late 1990’s, the opera world wondered what she would do next. Expand her operatic repertory and take on touchstone soprano roles in Bellini operas? There was talk that Debussy’s Mélisande might become a signature part. Instead, she restricted her appearances and looked back to the 18th century, uncovering neglected arias from operas by Gluck and Salieri. Who would have thought that her 1999 Decca release “The Vivaldi Album,” a program of essentially unknown arias by the composer of the ubiquitous “Four Seasons,” would top the charts?
Ms. Bartoli brought her latest exploration, “Opera Proibita,” to Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, a sold-out, ecstatically received concert strategically linked to the release of her recent Decca recording of the same title. This time Ms. Bartoli is focusing on the first decade of the 18th century, when Pope Clement XI, alarmed by growing political conflicts that threatened the authority of the church, banned operatic performances in Rome, deeming musical theater dangerously arousing and incendiary. Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara, among others, simply turned to the oratorio, writing works full of impassioned arias with love stories thinly disguised as allegorical tales. These oratorios were actually stealth operas.
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