Cecilia Bartoli (Italy, born 1966)

During the final decade of the twentieth century, Cecilia Bartoli emerged as perhaps the public's favorite concert singer, with no sign in the twenty-first that her singular mix of vocal pyrotechnics, physical attractiveness, intelligent musicianship, and audience seduction would decline. Only Luciano Pavarotti sold more discs for Decca in the same period. Bartoli has been winning awards globally every year since 1992. She sings opera, of course, but for only part of each season, and by choice in a limited number of congenial venues. Although Monte Carlo is her home, Zürich audiences are frequent beneficiaries of her operatic activity, where Nikolaus Harnoncourt, one of the two most influential conductors in her career, regularly presides. She sang Cherubino in Mozart's Figaro there in 198... read more