CECILIA REACTS to "Agitata da due venti" sung by Cecilia Bartoli

Opera Cecilia is a company made by, and for, performers. In the spirit of this mission, we are here to provide fun and educational content for emerging artists and new opera goers alike. Join us for the "Artistic Director Reacts" series - where artistic director and Opera Cecilia founder Taylor Gonzaga unpacks some of the world's most prominent operatic and contemporary performances. Taylor holds a master's degree from the University of Minnesota. She has several years of experience being a voice teacher and vocal coach in the Pacific Northwest.
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Original video:
• OPERA PLANET Cecilia B...
Opera Cecilia does not own the videos reviewed in our series, we are simply reacting to them. This kind of educational review and commentary is allowed under section 107 of the Copyright Act. This video is meant to be a transformative version of the original work based in commentary, comparison, analysis, and criticism.

[@nunc-hic-stans4211]

I love her, she's so unique, spectacular snd yet so simple, so easy going; crossed paths with her years ago in Paris, I don't like to bother famous people with autographs or selfies (🤦🏻‍♂️), just nodded at her and she nodded back and bolwed a kiss with a smile, just love her 🤷🏻‍♂️. Greetings from Buenos Aires 👍👋.

[@augustduncan]

I’m convinced Cecilia Bartoli is an alien. 😂

[@frogmouth]

She's mezzo and specialises in the Barock plus early 19th : Rossini Mozart not later. Her agility and power and acting are superb

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

Great chat about a fantastic show-stopping aria by one of the greatest singers of the age. A few thoughts. The facial gestures are ok; Cecilia is into the meaning of every word in this emotional aria which she is all over, and the alternative is to stand there as though wearing a mask - both face and body were singing the aria as well as the voice, it was a complete performance. Bartoli was singing the music, not just the notes; the phrasing of the long lines of coloratura were superbly shaped. I’d suggest being a little wary as an American trained singer of criticising an Italian trained Italian singer; I’m not sure I heard the aspirate ‘h’ you mentioned as the letter and sound don’t exist in Italian except in a silent function. CPE Bach was quite damning about the German system of vocal training in the 18th century; he suggested that the Italian way was far better, and there could be little wonder why Italians sang much better than Germans; that criticism is still valid today, and not just for Germans! One of the most difficult things for English-speaking singers is to get the Italian vowel sounds right (it’s ‘Chay-*cheel*-ee-ah’ not ‘Che-chill-ya’), and in the repeated staccato notes, I couldn’t hear the ‘h’s you mentioned, but more a case of authentically aspirated Italian vowel sounds - though I get the point about the aspiration which has been made about Bartoli by other English-speaking critics. Many English-speakers worldwide struggle with Italian, but ‘spaventado’ for spaventato, and ‘legado’ for legato is obviously a particular peril to avoid for American singers where ‘t’ is routinely pronounced as ‘d’, something which you absolutely cannot do in Italian. You explained the movement between voices really well, the chest voice was always used in Baroque opera and all singers moved from one voice to another very easily in music that was often extremely difficult both technically and in terms of vocal range. Bartoli’s control of her entire range here is superb. Thanks for the video which I enjoyed very much and appreciated your useful insights - will check out some others.

[@tommunyon2874]

I 've clicked on this video of Cecilia at least a dozen times. I inferred that there are mixed reactions to her, because when I mentioned her to my voice coach she rolled her eyes.

[@musiccecilia7754]

Yes she can be a polarizing figure in the opera world but we are a fan of her stage presence and can appreciate what she does with her coloratura. Everyone has a different taste :)

[@gerriwetherhold6369]

None better than Cecelia. So unique and that voice superb. Unbelieveable!!!!!

[@andreaperilli6613]

Che dire? Un'artista unica al mondo, non conosco quante altre possano eseguire un pezzo del genere con questa professionalità.

[@donathszamosi1596]

No one. And i dont think anyone ever could. I think Vivaldi have happy tears in heaven for Ceciloa Bartoli.

[@flavianofloris4459]

​@@donathszamosi1596that's nice ❤

[@johnclawed]

I think the reason it isn't standard repertoire is because nobody else can do it.

[@user-wd4ut2pg9o]

A few can do it, too, but not like her

[@jackellock7113]

Cecilia is like the Nadia Comăneci of opera.

[@fredgarv79]

a perfect 10

[@yoselynray8554]

I love her smile ...I think I'm.in love her ....lol

[@robertjones5277]

Thank you for this! I have been waiting a long time for a Bartoli reaction!

[@musiccecilia7754]

Of course! She’s so cool and there was so much to unpack!

[@annexton3795]

Cecilia is a recent discovery for me, no boffin AT ALL. The words mean "Shaken by 2 winds, the wave quivers in a troubled sea and the frightened helmsman already expects to be wrecked..." Came home late from an evening do 2 nights ago and had this blaring at full volume. A sudden storm blew up whipping broken branches and leaves across the road in the headlights. The music was so fitting it was uncanny. She gets that quaking fear to a T and her facial expression is perfect. Someone else mentioned that she enjoys sharing her gift. I think C B is absolutely fantastic.

[@williammcenaney1331]

Thank you for the fine commentary. Though I can't sing, I strive to know all I can know about opera because it's my favorite kind of high culture. Years ago, I dreamed that I'd portray Sarastro in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute." many people say my baritone speaking voice belongs on the radio. But that couldn't substitute for the dream come true. So I admire any fine singer who helps me live it vicariously.

[@ElLuis1122]

She is amazing.

[@musiccecilia7754]

She has a fascinating gift, for sure.

[@beebee5807]

like you I absolutely love Cecilia Bartoli. As Pavarotti was the best Tenor ever, Cecilia is the best Sopranoof of all time.

[@TVidsnow]

I love this piece it’s crazy!

[@doddsalfa]

She’s simply the greatest Vivaldi singer ever lived

[@pattisouzza2652]

I love her too, she is not from this planet😊

[@reddragonready]

Great reaction! I completely agree on your reasons for loving Cecilia!

[@musiccecilia7754]

Thank you!! 😊

[@susanadams8896]

I ❤ her !!

[@mirkochicco9620]

Bravissime!

[@vorspiel8]

Por ella entré al mundo de la ópera

[@panchiolarranaga1616]

Spettacolare grande!! Txs this was so unexpected

[@musiccecilia7754]

Of course! She is one of my favorite singers out there right now!

[@panchiolarranaga1616]

@@musiccecilia7754 She's gorgeous!!

[@graziabalducci3696]

La Grande Cecilia Bartoli un orgoglio italiano

[@jfranken600]

I really appreciate the intelligent commentary, which is not just fan-talk. It doesn't only shows a brought, respectful understanding of singing and performing, but also grants mrs Bartolis wonderful voice the compliment of a critical ear.

[@rickkemp2749]

Who cares about her facial expressions?There's a paying audience here that came to hear her sing. In any case, she feels they're necessary, whether you do, or not.

[@musiccecilia7754]

Hello Rick, thank you for your feedback. My mentioning the facial expressions was not meant to be a dig on her artistry, just making a point that while she may find them necessary and it’s also apart of her artistry, not every artist will have to do the same thing when they sing this repertoire to achieve technical efficiency. I know when singers just starting out (including myself when I was very young) look at professionals sometimes they feel they need to just imitate everything they do when we are really working to find our own authentic artistry, and should not try to be a copy of what others do. Since my company was made by and for emerging artists I thought that was worth mentioning. I love Cecilia and everything she does onstage, as I said in the video. I think she’s a lot of fun to watch. I hope that provides a little clarification! Many blessings and thank you for visiting my channel. ☺️

[@rickkemp2749]

@@musiccecilia7754 If the worst thing your company members did was copy Bartoli's facial expressions, they'd still be miles ahead of the competition. Of course, if they could sing like her, as well, they'd make up the entire female roster at La Scala.

[@Alexmeister25]

Bravura arias with coloraturas is best with - (ha ha ha) in notes this is barock style, I love Mrs. Bartoli 😀

[@Shayvideo]

Also classical singing is just like training. So pretty much all your muscles are engaged, and it is TOTALLY necessary to practice and find your voice in muscle engagements and etc, therefore singing is not only the outcome of larynx area vibrating and whatsoever

[@leonaldobrum]

You are right in several counts. One (the most important) is Cecilia's coloratura performance and the other is her deep understanding of the Baroque culture. Love you also for that. 🤗

[@robysmart5655]

The problem is that it is we who listen who are left breathless. Greetings from Italy

[@danoslehoy]

Cecilia Bartoli es GENIAL !! Aparte de ser una excelente cantante tiene la capacidad de seducir a su público, algo que debe ser inherente en un artista, pero no todos los tienen, Cecilia Bartoli lo tiene de sobra, por eso la amor y pago lo que sea por verla y escucharla.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

Continued.... Now if you are interested in music: listen to this rendition of Parto, Parto: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fn2Qh2OBnNeih8k What makes that performance so much better than others. Well, she uses the right clarinet - a basset clarinet. Why? Because the break between low register and high register of the clarinet changes the overtones that give the clarinet its charachter. The low notes - with an overlap - have odd numbered overtones. Example: 100, 300, 500, etc. The high register has like the oboe even numbered overtones 200, 400, 600 etc. What happens is: When the instrument is overblown the base note disappears. The high register can be played perfect fine without the bell of the instrument. That means that the tone you hear in the high register is actually the first overtone. It means that the high note can only play forte and the low register only piano. The switch also drops half a tone. The latter makes the fingering of the clarinette a nightmare - especially if they have to switch to basset clarinet. With the basset horn it is pitched an octave under the Bb clarinet and the basset is a fifth lower than the common clarinet. So naturally the basset has the break on another point in the scale. Listen for comparison to Elina Garanca (another favourite of mine -- never saw so convincing and slutty Carmen) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaLSiqSdpsxokLM: She has a hell of a time placing the tone. She wants to feel the resonance, because she can't hear it to her satisfaction. Ultimately she throws the leaf of the score over in frustration - and says to herself: Not good enough, but it is the best its going to get. All because she is singing to the WRONG clarinet. It is presumeably a soprano in Bb. We KNOW that Mozart did not use the higher clarinet, because a) he had the only clarinet players of quality: The Stadler brothers. And the higher clarinets were NOT INVENTED YÉT. Four years after Mozarts death Haydn composes two clarinet pieces.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

Continued.... I love this pirate video of her singing Una voce poco fa: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYHSn4yArrh3iLc The video is from last year - and she is not 20 any more; but neither am I - it is not a bad thing (considering the alternative) - getting older that is. It is typical for Cecilia that she moves around and at times turns her butt to the audience, because she is listning to the accompagment lead in - so as to judge how much water there is in the pool. Simultaneously she argues with a member of the audience and the cell phone and makes a funny face. She not only knows where her orchester is precisely; but also the audience. You can't sneak much past her. She uses her eyes to communicate with the audience. She is using a vocal technique that will make most voice teacher agast. Mouth wide open in forte in on high notes. Does it work? Oh, yes.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

Well, I would like to draw Your attention to the way she has developed over time: A much later video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fn2Qh2OBnNeih8k Now the placement of the note on different vowels: The vocal chords can move in two directions simultaneously and each vowel has a different overtone (if I am not mistaken) - except I that has no overtone which is why high soparanos screach on high notes sung on I. Typically Diana Damrau smashed her voice early in her carrier and has since used tricks to place the tone correctly - she got blisters on her vocal chords.

[@musicofnote1]

There's a version of her singing that's about 8 years older and with a much smaller orchestra. Also IMHO much better, less vibrato, melissmen are cleaner and jumps from extreme highs to and from extreme lows are cleaner.

[@musicofnote1]

Here's a link to this performance: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHq2m3V9hNl7ntU

[@karalozdan4414]

I thought Cecilia pronounced with "s" not "ch" like chinchilla? I might be wrong. She is mezzo I think.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

Cecilia Bartoli is Italian therefore Cecilia = Che-chee-lya.

[@JacquelineLanceTenor]

Yes, she is a mezzo. Though many people speculate that she's a soprano because she has such a wide range. Realistically I think she's just a really high Mezzo with a very solid upper extension.

[@felixcalus]

from series: " how americans reacts to a good european opera"!!!!!

[@catalina1097]

Cecilia Bartoli is a mezzo-soprano!😅

[@user-wd4ut2pg9o]

Not like a machine gun, ELOQUENT!! and AGILE!@

[@italialibera2102]

She's not soprano, she's mezzosoprano. must say that when I see this kind of videos, I realize that the singing abilities of this or that singer are always highlighted. in reality, it should be explained how the author of the music and the libretto intended that aria or that role within a given opera. in this way the meaning of that aria is better explained and also how and why it was sung.

[@Shayvideo]

People envy her because NOBODY can pursue her coloraturas and after all these years her voice hasn’t been damaged so good luck with other yellers on the stage that totally lose their voices in time

[@dougs7367]

If you can sing this *without* making facial expressions, you are a robot

[@aldolanini3815]

Spaventato non spavendado

[@counsious6330]

why dont you sing, so we can see your face lol!! BARTOLI THE BEST

[@flavianofloris4459]

Vivaldi wrote it Cecilia sing it

[@user-eb1kv7nt3d]

Can you shou really beautiful voice for your mind? I don't like Secilia very much. But i must hearing the best.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

Hmm.... a lot of unpacking to do here, so let's get started: First of: There are only 5 wovels in Italian (i,e,a,o,u), each - if I am not mistaken - with an overtone at different level. Sung note f.i. 100 Hz, but it has an overtone of 0, 200, 300, 400, 500, depending on the wovel in question. That is why her techque does not work in German, as the wovels have an Umlaut, which I think breaks differently - my guess is 0, 150, 250, 350, 450. As far as I know, she has never sung in German. Next: Vivaldi is a composer that is writing for the violin - or rather the violin family. The violin was constructed to get away from the inaudiable family of gambe's. They were fretted six stringed instrument with the difference between 3rd and 4th string of a fifth, where the other differences are only a third - intervals from my recollection. That weird jump was necessary to play in different keys. The violin, can do this to a larger extend - so the viola is a fifth lower, and the cello is an octave below the viola, and the double bass is yet another octave below (and the only survivor of the shipwreck of the gambe family). Bach comes with the veltempered piano. The trick is here that if you have 100 Hz then a fifth up is 150 Hz. Then in an octave higher the same note is 200 Hz and the fifth up is 300 Hz - NOT 250. So the damned thing goes flat or sharp (depending on which way you go up or down). The mathmatical reason is that the tone within the octave has to rationally stacked to achieve a harmonios triad where the tones combine to form an approximate square wave. That is it has to be rational number in the distances within the octave. First note is base, second a third above that and no. 3 is a fifth. A rational number can be written as the ratio betwen two whole numbers - it is the definition. This a squareroot is NOT. Actually no root of a prime number is rational - I can prove that. What Bach got right was it has to be an irrational number and it can give an approximation that is "good enough" but it means that any pretuned instrument is ever so slightly off-key. What Bach got WRONG was that doubling up again and again is an operation that is not only irrational, it is trandencental - which basically means that it cannot be the root of prime number of a ratio between whole number. Now Bach was excused for not knowing that, because Lennart Euler at the time was marooned in Sct. Petersburg. Bach taught Mozart composition at the age of 8. Anyhow, the difference is so slight from the appoximation that it really doesn't matter. What You forget is: Cecilia has about the finest hearing. That is due to fact, that she grew up in a singer family and has been associated with teater and opera her whole life and was grounded before schoolteachers could destroy her intelligence. OK, teachers are a demographic I destest on the level of bankers - you know the types that give used car dealers and pimps of rent boys a good reputation. But that is neither here nor there.

[@marapaltrinieri5667]

Un consiglio che sembra assurdo. The more you speak Italian, the most you sing well

[@marapaltrinieri5667]

SPAVENTATO, not Spavendado

[@Laura-cq1np]

God! sorry, but your complements to Cecilia-( all deserved ); does not help much about the extraordinary technique of crescendo, descrecendos, cadenza and mellismas etc etc as part of baroque musique. Please, talk about proper technique she used; you said, but you don't said!!! We , advanced student , we are not " naif" and 14:21 l the time you used the term " coloratura"; "coloratura" "coloratura"...please; show us at least your " minor" knowledge about batoque resources....yes!!!!!, we already know that , and...the mask, the tricoid muscle, and the leaning position; and the smile - already prepared , and, and....please!!!! - iinvite you to study " antique vocal technique and then ask to be part if a video, please!!!!, thanks.

[@MarcoCallas]

As much as I agree on your comments on Callas, I totally disagree with what you say about Cecilia Bartoli. She has a great technical problem: she can’t do the vocalizing legato, it sounds like hiccups. Having said that, yes, she has a good mezzosoprano voice, but with better technique, she could have achieved much better results artistically. And sorry to say that, but her facial expressions, to me, are on the verge of ridiculous, and always the same, whatever role she tries to interpret.

[@DonLuc23]

As I am not an expert, but, I find her performance totally engaging, her facials and body movements draws me to watch her sing and not just listen. If these are hiccups, then she hiccups very well.

[@musiccecilia7754]

I totally understand where you're coming from. I think Cecilia Bartoli is still an example of a great performer; I think the divide in opinions is on how a person defines greatness. A great performer may be incredibly masterful and flawless in their execution of a genre or style. Alternatively, a great performer is also one who captures the attention of the audience; enthralls and entertains with deliberate, intentional choices.The choices and sound production that Bartoli presents may not be considered technically flawless, but there's not denying that she is fascinating to look at and listen to.

[@Laura-cq1np]

12:46 12:46 12:46 God! PLEASEEEE!!!! talk about technique, vocal resources- leave surprising faces for teens or , pleSe, do not choose a " big one" as Cecilia; thanks ; colocatura! what a surprise!, what else...ah ja, " breathing contention" - you mean " apoggio " what is your next " Dimash" Im opera student, specially baroque time... waste of time...

[@IgorS_Isr]

Sorry, but this is not a proper fioritura. It is sound more like a parody of real coloratura singing. Strange that an Italian singer can't pronounce any Italian vowels properly. And then she adds non-existent in Italian language H vowel everywhere. She sounds aspirated and nasal.

What are you talking about? Bartoli is incomparable and has a prodigious voice. Denying something so obvious by hiding behind a so-called "expert analysis" only shows poor sensitivity and a pitiful inability to appreciate. I feel sorry for you, really.

[@IgorS_Isr]

@ If I want to appreciate fioritura I can always listen to Tetrazzini, Galli-Curci, Patti or Maria Callas. You don't need to be an expert to understand the difference.

@@IgorS_Isr That's my problem with the technical and purist approach to 'bel canto', by taking care of the figures they lose the opportunity to connect with the embodied emotion. It is precisely in those supposed "technical imperfections" that authenticity emerges: the human character of the performer cannot be confined by the sheet music.

[@IgorS_Isr]

@ Every art should be based on craft. There are many great singers with amazing techniques that are also great artists.

[@IgorS_Isr]

@ Wrong way and the right way: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWbHqZqjrpl7Zpo

[@user-eb1kv7nt3d]

Can you shou really beautiful voice for your mind? I don't like Secilia very much. But i must hearing the best.