Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Mozart Operas

I have recently bought a couple of CD sets of Mozart operas: Lucio Silla, recorded in 1989, and Mitridate, recorded in 1998. The common thread, of course, is Cecilia Bartoli, who sings Cecilio in Lucio Silla and Sifare in Mitridate. I was surprised to see that Mitridate was recorded so long ago, but that would explain Cecilia's contralto sound here. Cecilia's arias from Lucio Silla were released on Erato years ago, so it seemed unnecessary to buy the complete recording. Wrong. All this time I have been missing the spectacular duet "D'elisio in sen mi'attendi" between Cecilio and Giunia, sung by Edita Gruberova. I am more familiar with Mitridate from watching videos of it here and here. Cecilia produces her usual miracles, but the surprise here is Natalie Dessay who catches the flame of expression. I am closing in on owning all of Cecilia's recordings. There are a large number of collections where she is included, but I am not counting these, since they should be made up of items from things I already own. I am missing her performance of Dorabella and maybe something else.

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