Find out what's happening in Opera - New York City and around the World
OperaNotes Review
October 19, 2005
By Charlene Frank
Cecilia Bartoli
Opera Proibita
Orchestra La Scintilla of Zürich Opera
Can you imagine Italy with no Opera? Italy, the country of art and passion, and opera is prohibited. Pope Clement XI may have fobidden the music of Handel, Scarlatti, Caldara and Bononcini in the early 18th century, but he couldn't make it disappear. Three hundred years have past, and thanks to Rome's own daughter, Cecilia Bartoli, this forbidden music was on the stage at Carnegie Hall tonight.
Cecilia Bartoli doesn't just sing, she becomes the music. In early 2004, when she performed in Washington DC, I wrote that I thought we would see her conducting soon. Tonight everyone sitting around me agreed. The music is in her pores, her muscles, her face, she even pounds her feet to the music; she brings us her song with every inch of who she is. It is perfect and she is a phenomenon. A phenomenon who graces our city once a year and each year we hope it will be more often in the year to follow.
Every aria was beautiful. Whether it was high explosive energy or tender and heart wrenching, I can't imagine anyone bringing us music that nobody runs to see and having the entire audience fall in love with it the way Ms. Bartoli does. We just need to get her here more often. Rumor has it that she is thinking about joining the Met schedule for the 2007 - 2008 season. Until then, once a year at Carnegie Hall will do just fine.
And now, I need to add a few sentences about Carnegie Hall. The concert sold out, and the good seats were gone immediately. The only seats I could get were in the Dress Circle and although I am sure she was wonderful even from the balcony, I was shocked at the behavior of the audience and of the ushers. It was as though we were in a Seinfeld episode. A man got on his cell phone in the middle of an incredible Handle aria "Hello! Hello!" and when people shh'd him, he yelled "Don't tell me to shut up!" In mid-aria! Another man climbed over his seat to go out the bathroom. Not during the intermission, or even between songs! Right in the middle of another aria. Then he came back in and climbed over seats as well! The ushers were equally rude, opening and closing loud, squeaky doors even throughout the entire evening. It was the craziest operatic night I have ever spent. I guess Carnegie Hall isn't what it used to be.