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Q&A: Cecilia Bartoli

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Italian diva Cecilia Bartoli won the 2011 Grammy Award for best classical vocal performance for the album Sacrificium. She performs two recitals in her Hong Kong debut this week as part of the Arts Festival and talks to Oliver Chou about what the audiences can expect.

What do you feel you are bringing to an East-West cultural exchange?

I see myself as an ambassador of our [Italy's] great musical heritage and a translator of the intentions of the composers of bygone centuries. Often, their music has been neglected because people have forgotten how to appreciate it. My job is to try to recreate what the composers had in mind when they wrote a piece of music 100 or 200 years ago and make people understand and appreciate it. I expect that in China, where people are used to far older traditions and where many centuries-old traditions still form part of everyday life, this is in some ways easier than in the Western world.

How would you expect a Chinese audience to respond to your performance and would such expectations affect the repertoire?

I have chosen a recital with songs from the Romantic period and its most popular composers such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Bizet. They are not arias taken from operas but real songs - miniature scenes, which at the time were very popular and sung at more informal gatherings. It was at the homes of wealthy and influential people that the most famous artists, poets and musicians of the day mingled with politicians, the rich and affluent. Maria Malibran, one of the most famous opera singers, often performed these songs at such gatherings with great virtuosi such as Paganini, Liszt, Thalberg, Mendelssohn and so on. I have therefore also included a group of songs by Malibran, her sister Pauline Viardot and their father Manuel Garcia, who were also world-famous singers.

The second of my Hong Kong recitals is devoted to the 18th century - the baroque era. At that time theatrical life was dominated by the castrati. They retained a high, female sounding quality but an incredible range and power. They also received a very thorough musical training and thus became some of the most famous singers in the world. My programme is based on the school of Naples, the city in the south of Italy, and especially the teacher and composer Nicolo Porpora [1686-1768]. His students, Farinelli and Caffarelli, are legendary even today - and in those days they created a hype like Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga.

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