Back 4 Moar - Cecilia Bartoli at the Barbican - again

Cecilia Bartoli - Barbican, 21 December 2007

If Cecilia Bartoli can manage two nights at the Barbican, then so can I. Her visits to London are so rare, it would have been a crime not to.

Same show as before, even the same frock, but no encore of Yo que soy contrabandista. The voice, lighter and even more flexible. Presumably she'd cast off the cold announced before the earlier show.

To assert that much of the 'Malibran' material is second rate is correct, but kind of beside the point. As is claiming that we'll never know what her voice sounded like. This tour is about experiencing a great performer at the height of her powers, one who captures the music with fluency and generosity of spirit, and in that Bartoli has captured the essence of the legendary Maria Malibran.