Intermezzo

Cecilia reveals Divine Festival plans

Cecilia Bartoli has had a busy week. Opening her 2014 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, singing in it, celebrating her birthday and, finally, revealing her plans for the 2015 festival. All whilst dressed as a milkmaid. Pretty impressive.

This year's festival centres on Rossini. Next year's is elevated to the divine with a 'gods' theme.

La Ceci herself takes the leading role in the festival's two operas: Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, directed by her beloved Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, and a concert performance of Handel's Semele. During the daylight hours there are two vocal recitals and a chamber concert. For the first time the Hamburg ballet visit the Whitsun Festival, where they will present John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Other festival firsts are a reading, a puppet show and cinema screenings to complement the musical programme.  Four packed days end with a gala concert featuring Anna Netrebko, Vesselina Kasarova, Juan Diego Florez and Christopher Maltman alongside La Ceci, with arias by Purcell, Gluck, Haydn and Offenbach. Ticket prices are unfortunately as steep as ever, ranging from 12 to 430 euros.

The 2015 programme in full:

Cecilia Bartoli threatens European democracy

You might think a German newspaper on a press freedom crusade could find a more worthy target than a baroque mezzo. Apparently not.

Cecilia's new baby

The Salzburg Whitsun Festival opens on 17 May with a new Leiser and Caurier production of Norma starring the Festival's artistic director, Cecilia Bartoli. Leiser and Caurier revisit their beloved 1950s in the sombre palette of Italian neorealism.

La Ceci has insisted the musical side reflects Bellini's own era instead of reverting to post-Verdian cliche. Her digging around has resulted in a revised score that reverses habitual cuts. The casting of Norma and Adalgisa has been rethought, and Zurich Opera's period orchestra, La Scintilla, has been drafted in.

Naturally the Decca marketing machine has not missed the opportunity to crank into action. A Norma CD follows hot on the heels of the performance, but with a slightly different cast. Read more and listen to the album on the Guardian website.

Could new Pope answer Cecilia Bartoli's prayers?

While researching Mission, her recent Agostino Steffani recording, Cecilia Bartoli discovered many of the composer's documents were taken to the Vatican on his death. Frustratingly, she couldn't get her hands on any of them. Speaking to journalist Ljubisa Tosic recently, she said "I definitely wasn't prepared to wait until the doors of the Vatican opened to me. The CD would probably still not have appeared." So she completed her Steffani investigations without a visit to the Holy See.

A planned concert for Pope Benedict, called off when La Ceci rightly refused to answer an overly-personal question, may not have helped her cause.

However her Vatican dreams are not yet over: "I believe there are still scores by Monteverdi undiscovered in the Vatican but it is not easy to get access to the documents. You need the right connections and as yet I don't have them".

Could opera-loving Pope Frank turn out to be Cecilia's inside man?

La Scala boos La Ceci

A shocking story from Milan.

La Scala's infamous loggionisti revealed they're still the least civilised audience in operadom at Cecilia Bartoli's first appearance there in 19 years last night.

Her concert with Daniel Barenboim and the La Scala orchestra went down well until the very end, when a small group in the upper galleries began booing and whistling and shouting “You don’t sing Rossini like this”, “Shame on you”, etc.

Graham Spicer, who was there, believes the attack was premeditated. Read his report (with photos) here.

A warm hand for La Ceci

Sadly I couldn't be there to witness Cecilia Bartoli's triumph at the Barbican last night, but Kyoko's curtain call video shows how London rocked to the sound of Steffani.