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Cecilia Bartoli == Sacrificium == 02 – ANTONIO CALDARA: Profezie, di me diceste == Giovanni Antonini (conductor) == Il Giardino Armonico If you are a fan of great, florid singing and/or Cecilia Bartoli, this remarkable set is both self-recommending and beyond criticism. It is devoted to the art of the castrato, those men who were mutilated just at or before puberty if and when their families thought (hoped?) they had enough talent to become great singers and therefore great earners…. Audiences flocked to hear these singers with the lung power and volume of men and the range of women; the procedure stopped their voices from breaking while their bodies continued to grow. They were the highest-paid singers in the world, while at the same time they were reviled, mocked, and adored. Monstrous photos of Bartoli’s head on mutilated statues of men dot the pages of the accompanying booklet. We get it, we get it! As a marketing plan (said to have been Bartoli’s brainchild) it certainly is bizarre. The music is another story entirely. Not all of it is great stuff–Porpora was no Mozart and neither was Francisco Araia–but the performance level of these showpieces raises the simply good and flashy to a level of high art and wonderment, just as it did when the castrati for whom they were written first sang them. And happy to report, Bartoli is in her best voice and not miked too closely (on her Sonnambula recording you could hear her tongue move). The CD opens with a “simile” aria …

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