(Photo: Decca/Uli Weber)
Her voice might or might not heal the sick, as other, minor singers like to unironically think of themselves, but the true miracle of Cecilia Bartoli is that for all her fame and power in this business, she's still investing months and months and work to personally research lost arias, forgotten scores, underrated composers. She could afford sleepwalking through the same four or five barnburners, content to do the occasional recital with the mon$ter fee and then go shoe-shopping at Louboutin, instead she studies, and works hard.
That's one of the reasons -- some of the other reasons being her magic coloratura, her charisma, her stage presence, her way of waving happily to the crowd after each performance, her amazing hair, her bewbs -- that her dedicated fan-core waits for her new CDs with throbbing anticipation. Cecilia Bartoli will drop a new CD this Fall, dedicated to the fascinating legacy of castrati. Titled "Sacrificium", it drops on October 13, 2009 in the USA (while it launches roughly a month earlier in Europe Internationally on October 2 because we're cooler like that).
The track list collects arias of the Baroque masters from (Opera Chic's Italian idol) Caldara to Giacomello, Araia to Porpora -- all works sung by noted castrati of the time -- and is led by Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico for Decca.
The CD will be given the expected Ceci thoroughness, and will tout a 100-page booklet all about castrati (insert joke about editorial cuts here).
Complete tracklist after the jump...
Disc I
1. Come Nave in mezzo all'onde
2. Profezie, di me diceste
3. Cadrò, ma qual si mira
4. Parto to lascio, o cara
5. Usignuolo sventurato
6. Misero pargoletto
7. In braccio a mille furie
8. Qual farfalla
9. Nobil onda
10. Deh, tu bel Dio d'amore...Ov'è il mio ben
11. Chi temea Giove regnante
12. Quel buon pastor son io
Disc II
1. Son qual nave
2. Ombra mai fu
3. Sposa, non mi conosci