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Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium | 
| Artist: Cecilia Bartoli
Creators: Various, Giovanni Antonini, Il Giardino Armonico
Label: Decca
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $15.79
as of 11/27/2009 10:41 CST details
You Save: $9.19 (37%)
New (22) from $15.79
Seller: beaches_entertainment
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 240
Format: Deluxe Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.8
MPN: 001341202
UPC: 028947815211
EAN: 0028947815211
ASIN: B002GYGSXG
Release Date: October 26, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Come nave in mezzo all'onde* [Siface] from Act II of Siface | | • | Profezie, di me diceste* [Sedecia] from Sedecia | | • | Cadrò, ma qual si mira* [Demetrio] from Berenice | | • | Parto, ti lascio, o cara* [Arminio] from Act II of Germanico in Germania | | • | Usignolo sventurato* [Siface] from Act II of Siface | | • | Misero pargoletto* [Timante] from Act III of Demofoonte | | • | In braccio a mille furie* [Mirteo] from Act III of Semiramide riconosciuta | | • | Qual farfalla* [Decio] from Act II of Zenobia in Palmira | | • | Nobil onda [Adelaide] from Adelaide | | • | Deh, tu bel Dio d'amore ... Ov`è il mio bene?* [Farnaspe] from Act II of Adriano in Siria | | • | Chi temea Giove regnante* [Berenice] from Farnac | | • | Quel buon pastor son io [Abel] from Act I of La Morte d'Abel |
Disc 2
| • | Son qual nave [Arbace] from Act III of Artaserse (Pasticcio) | | • | Ombra mai fu [Serse] from Act I of Serse | | • | Sposa, non mi conosci [Epitide] from Act III of Merope |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
"The age of the castratos was one of the most dazzling and remarkable in European music history. Seldom has there ever been such a complete fusion of sensuousness and splendor, form and content, poetry and music, and, above all, such a perfection of vocal virtuosity, as was achieved in the glory days of the Baroque era. The legendary art of the castratos continues to exert its fascination even today, and despite the great human sacrifice it exacted, a new assessment of this extraordinary period is surely justified." - Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli uncovers the extraordinary and cruel world of the `Castrati' and sings the glorious music they inspired. The all-new album consists almost entirely of world-premiere recordings of some of the most virtuosic music ever written for the human voice. The arias on the album are drawn from the works of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), Antonio Caldara (c. 1670-1736), Francesco Araia (1709-1770), Carl Heinrich Graun (c. 1703-1759), Leonardo Leo (1694-1744), Leonardo Vinci (1696-1730), Riccardo Brosc hi (c. 1658-1756) and Geminiano Giacomello (c. 1692- 1740). After extensive research Bartoli has produced not only a new recording, but also a comprehensive study of the castrati and their time period through two lavishly produced and illustrated articles included in the deluxe package. Sacrificium marks the first collaboration of Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini, and Bartoli since their Grammy® Award-winning The Vivaldi Album ten years ago. This deluxe package is a hardback book (12 x 14 cm) including 2 CDs of music including 11 world-premiere recordings. The extensive booklet includes two essays on the castrati: "Evviva il coltellino!" ("Long live the the little knife") & "Castrato Compendium" (a 108-page "A-Z" of the castrati). The entire project features lavish illustrations and photos throughout along with an additional 44-page libretto.
Album Description
A work dedicated to "castratos" and the music that their magic voices inspired to a lot of composers. The title of the album refers to the sacrifice castratos did for the sake of music
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
Glory out of cruelty November 8, 2009
Constantine A. Papas
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bartoli, with her unique instrument, artistry and musicanship, transposes us to an epoch that gave us a human voice of unparalelled beauty that came out of cruelty. There are no castrati recordings but only written impressions of their sound. Countertenors have been singing castrato, but I find their timbre monochromatic and tedious. Countertenors are trained to sing in faked head voice-falsetto. Their vocal cords look like the vocal cords of a grown man unless testosterone deficient or born with a woman's vocal cords, which a freak of nature. The pitch of the voice is determined by the length and thickness of the vocal cords. Castration arrests the developement of the vocal cords, and a man will have a woman's voice. Bartoli's scholarly and phenomenal vocal contribution, with this issue, has given us a God-sent gift to cherish for ever. A mezzo-soprano will remain the closest to a castrato's voice, and no one can do better than Cecilia Bartoli. Bravo!
Constantine A. Papas
El Paso, Texas
Continues to impress in many ways November 1, 2009
Neil J. Duval (Minot, ME USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Cecilia Bartoli is not only perhaps the loveliest voice I have ever heard, but she also does a service to opera. She delves into songbooks that would otherwise not be recorded or perhaps even be lost. From Salieri, to Opera Proibita to Maria. . . . and now Sacrificium. The songbook of The Castrata!! It is important to preserve such opera history and I applaud her delving into this less safe music (commercially). Hopefully we are unlikely to ever hear a modern recording of a true castrata singing this songbook, so a brilliant mezzo is the obvious choice to preserve this music. The accompanying book is absolutely fascinating by the way.
Bravo Cecilia, both I and posterity thank you!!
VIRTUOSISMO! November 1, 2009
C. Pacheco
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This album is simply one of Cecilia's best! She surpasses prior recordings in virtuosity and breathe control.
The album like all of her amazing works, has been carefully researched and studied to offer more than a CD but a full concept. Every aria offers something different and beautiful of what must have been the art of the castrati, Cecilia excells and outdoes herself in each of them. My favorite tracks are 1, 3, 4, 5, 11 and also the three wonderful recordings of the bonus album.
Some of these pieces truly give us an idea why so many of them have been forgotten, they are almost unsingable! They are so incredibly difficult that requires super human ability to do them justice, and in this Cecilia is the best.
The concept art of the album is meant to represent the operatic heroes of the time, the Greek gods and the Roman warriors...as well as the male body with the female face. It is daring, shocking, and awesome!
Cecilia delivers one more time an excellent work far superior than any other baroque album released in recent years (except for her albums).
Long live the little knife!! October 29, 2009
C. Pacheco (Houston, TX)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This album is top 3 one of Bartoli's best and most amazing vocally. I absolutely loved "Maria" but I appreciate a return to the baroque pieces such as the fantastic "Opera Proibita".
This album is full of majestic show pieces, fierce storm arias and sentimental and touchingly beautiful slow arias. There's a good variety to keep you both entertained and complete eargasm.
Cecilia demonstrates once again what a true virtuoso she is with no rivals of her incredible agility and range in arias like "Cadro" showcasing 30 measures worth of coloratura without stopping to re-take a breathe! Also lung-busting are the slow arias which require perfect breathe control. The CD with bonus tracks is also wonderful with the best rendition of "Son qual nave" I've ever heard at an amazing speed, and the touching "Ombra mai fu" and "Sposa".
It is definetely one of the most amazing vocal displays and one of the most beautiful recordings I've ever heard, as well as having a fantastic presentation coming with very interesting and kitsch/avant garde photographs, a fantastic book of everything castrato and 2 wonderful essays about the castrati and their time.
You MUST buy it if you love baroque music, la bartoli, farinelli, or simply beautiful beautiful music and the glory of the human voice.
Bartoli does it again - and better than ever October 29, 2009
G P Padillo (Portland, ME United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
How does one even begin to review such an album as this? With the recording industry in basically a shambles, little attention paid to serious classical vocalists, this has been, so far, a year of remarkable releases for which this one goes to the top of a very distinguished pile.
Bartoli has crossed a line most unique here in sharing her magnificent obsession with the castrati of the Italian baroque. The very title of the album itself is awe inspiring and thought provoking. While the very notion of castration is abhorrent and screams against nature without it some of the most amazing, most beautiful music ever composed would have most likely never been composed. Sacrificium is about an apt a name for this project as there could possibly be.
Through 15 selections, Bartoli - brilliantly partnered by Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini - takes us on a voyage - a journey of remarkable musicmaking that is exhilarating as it is exhausting, as joyous as it is tragic and as intellectually stimulating as it is emotional. We begin the journey an aria by the nearly forgotten Porpora, Come nave in mezzo all'onde, a virtuostic exercise that shows almost every baroque trick compacted into a whirlwind lasting just 4 minutes. Bartoli sails through with an energy that is matched by the spirited ensemble and what a thrill it is to hear brass instruments play with this kind of fierce "to the devil" kind of tone and energy. Thrilling seems too gentle a word for this kind of performance.
Immediately things settle back down to earth only to rise upwards again in an entirely different direction as Bartoli and the musicians offer an inspired reading of the prayer Profezie, di me diceste from Caldara's "Sedecia." The final line "Let the moment that ends my days bring everlasting peace," captured with a sound that is both captivating and heartfelt. Bartoli shows us (again) that she can hold us, can dazzle us and move us with music of such quiet gentility every bit as she can with the coloratura showpieces. Her range in this music is never less than astonishing and while her top remains bright and tightly coiled, her singing from the lower voice has never been more attractive as can be heard in these slower arias.
Throughout this set Bartoli captures our imagination and spirit and instantly transports us back centuries going to one of the most exciting - and dangerous - eras in music history. Her trills, roulades, pinpoint accuracy, sense of line, attention to details both musical and textual reveal a commitment that is never less than total and what a supreme joy it is to spend time with this set. The album is fiercely and attractively packaged, its two CDs wedged on either side of 150+ pages of essays, notes, photographs both disturbing and stunning, including the 100 page "Castrato Compendium" - an alphabetically listed mini-encyclopedia of all things castrati.
Typically I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite moment from so extraordinary a set, but having now listened to it several times - at least for the time being - will nominate Porpora's aria ""Parto, ti lascio o cara" from his 1732 opera "Germanico in Germania." One of the slower paced arias (with a fierce, short-burst of a "B" section), it is as beautiful and perfectly sung a piece of music as I can ever recall hearing.
Lovers of baroque opera, of the beauty of the human voice as well as those fascinated by undiscovered musical treasures should all have good reason to rejoice. The sacrifice has been made, and we're all the richer for it.
p.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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