Pick up Cecilia Bartoli's new CD, Opera Proibita, and think Fellini's La Dolce Vita. On the cover, the Italian mezzo recreates Anita Ekberg's fountain-dipping scene from the classic film of the 60s.
Fellini battled the Roman Catholic Church and now Bartoli has taken the side of three 18th-century composers, whose
arias raised the ire of the Pope and his Cardinals. Most pieces are on the fiery side.
With Marc Minkowski's Les Musiciens du Louvre behind her, she pumps joy, ecstasy and vocal revelry into Alessandro Scarlatti's Allarme di accessi guerrieri, alongside blazing trumpets and pounding timpani.
The CD is not all Baroque razzmatazz. Try Caldara's Vanne pentita a piangere, a tearful aria from St Eugenia or Handel's Lascia la spina. Her singing here is a model of restraint and eloquent phrasing.
But I suspect it's the wild side of Cecilia that will sell the CD, and nowhere is she more exhilarating than in the final Handel Disserratevi, o porte d'Averno in which an Angel demands the gates of Hell are opened. Satan would be a brave man to refuse.
Andreas Scholl's Arias for Senesino is a tribute to the castrato, Senesino, for whom Handel wrote the title role of Giulio Cesare.
This is a collection of quieter delights. When Scholl waxes bellicose in Handel's Al lampo dellarmi, he does so without trumpeting reinforcements.
The elegant players of the Accademia Bizantina create a relaxed backdrop; conductor Ottavio Dantone keeps tempos buoyant while sensitively balanced recording allows every detail of line to show through.
* Cecilia Bartoli, Opera Proibita (Decca 475 7029), Andreas Scholl, Arias for Senesino (Decca 475 6569)
