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| REVIEWS | BY JOEL TAYLOR |
 Cecilia Bartoli |
As a consequence his music has been scandalously ignored, labelled as inferior and lacking imagination. And yet, as Cecilia Bartoli’s latest offering, The Salieri Album, shows, he was a composer of considerable talent, if not reaching the heights of his young contemporary Mozart or his pupils Beethoven and Schubert. In a relatively short time, Rome-born mezzo-soprano Bartoli has established herself at the forefront of modern opera. A much sought after performer, she has a powerful, emotional voice and an undeniable panache and style about her singing. Here, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Adam Fischer, she performs arias from several Salieri operas. As such, they provide a colourful insight into Salieri’s work, and Bartoli sings with considerable poise. But the album does little more. Filled with arias, the melodious songs that most people seem to know from adverts rather than from their original contexts, it is surely designed to appeal to the mass market and to sell in bulk. No tedious recitatives are to be found here. Of course, this is no crime and the album is diverting and at times engrossing. But while it might be too much for a comprehensive recording of Salieri’s back catalogue, surely he deserves a little more than this. |
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