Bartoli, Cecilia: Rossini Edition Box (CD)

An exclusive Decca artist for 30 years, Cecilia Bartoli has become the most successful artist of a generation. Since her professional debut in Il Barbiere di Siviglia aged only 19 in her hometown of Rome, Rossini has been at the forefront of her illustrious career ever since. Discovered by the legendary Decca recording producer Christopher Raeburn in 1986, Cecilia made her first recording for Decca two years later in Il Barbiere di Siviglia soon followed by her debut recital disc.

Under his gentle tutelage and guidance, Cecilia steered a new-wave revival for Rossini’s music with fresh scholarship and authenticity, taking on the metaphorical baton handed to her from the bel canto legends such as Marilyn Horne & Joan Sutherland, becoming the undisputed star of this repertoire that we know and admire today, through her scholarly, intuitive and, above all, fun performances of some of the most challenging works ever written for mezzo.

Since her earliest recordings and performances, Cecilia has brought to Rossini’s incredible music not only an exemplary coloratura technique but also spirit and sassiness to so many of Rossini’s leading roles. Cecilia tackles with acrobatic virtuosity the most challenging of Rossini’s scores created expressly to highlight the almost super-human gifts of those singers who, for more than one reason, we might define as the “supreme virtuosos”, performing them with a combination of skill and passion, transcending the boundaries of the text.

The range of works featured in this collection is irrefutable proof of Cecilia’s Rossinian genius. The sheer quantity of his music she has recorded demonstrates her enduring interest in and commitment to the composer.


15 CDs + 6 DVDs LIMITED EDITION

Celebrating both Rossini150 & Cecilia Bartoli’s 30 years on Decca

The first boxed set from the most successful classical artist of the present day in collaboration with Fondazione Rossini

15-CD + 6-DVD limited edition set collecting the complete recorded repertoire from Rossini’s oeuvre of the most lustrous Rossinian primissima donna

Includes a previously unreleased recording of Salvatore Sciarrino’s orchestration of Giovanna d’Arco cantata with Riccardo Chailly, rediscovered in the Decca archives

216pp hardcover book (English/French/German/Italian) includes:

New tributes by friend and Rossini expert, Sergio Ragni, on Cecilia and the music of Rossini; and by Ilaria Narici, Director of the Fondazione Rossini, on the legacy of Rossini and Cecilia’s contribution to performance practice

New musicological essays from the Fondazione Rossini Critical Edition scholars on the arias, cantatas and songs included in the edition plus essays/synopses on each opera by leading experts such as Philip Gossett (deceased)

Facsimiles of original manuscripts, authenticated images provided by the Fondazione Rossini archives plus photos from the Decca archives

Full synopses & sung texts made available online