Opera: A Heavenly Voice in a Conceptual Hell ; L'ANIMA DEL FILOSOFO ROYAL OPERA HOUSE LONDON

Pappenheim, Mark, The Independent (London, England)

SO THE waiting is over. Exactly 210 years after its aborted world premiere, and just 12 years after her first Wigmore Hall cancellation, Cecilia Bartoli and Haydn's last opera both finally made it to the London stage last Monday night. And the good news for fans of the raven-haired Roman mezzo-soprano is that, yes, she is every bit as phenomenal in the flesh as she is on CD and, yes, you can hear her at the back of the hall, whether she's firing off one of those almost comically florid round of rapid-fire fioriture or floating one of those ineffably light pianissimos that are her trademarks.

True, there are times when the unabashed delight she displays in her own …

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Publication information: Article title: Opera: A Heavenly Voice in a Conceptual Hell ; L'ANIMA DEL FILOSOFO ROYAL OPERA HOUSE LONDON. Contributors: Pappenheim, Mark - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: October 19, 2001. Page number: 9. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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