Viva Vivaldi

I adore opera, and like Cecilia Bartoli very much. For those who also like her or even love her, Viva Vivaldi is a must-watch and also a must-have. The venue is welcoming, with an atmosphere that made me wish to be there, and as to be expected from Brian Large who rarely, if ever, disappoints Viva Vivaldi is video directed absolutely beautifully, almost cinematic and always complimenting Bartoli and the instrumentalists. I remember Vivaldi most for his Gloria and his concertos, but Viva Vivaldi has made me want to seek out his operas(I listen to a lot of Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Strauss and Wagner yet have shamefully overlooked Vivaldi for his contribution to opera) because these arias are incredible in melody, emotion and in how driven some of them are. The instrumentalists are simply wonderful, always stylish and balanced, and the concerto for two flautini is a lovely interlude. Bartoli herself I have run out of adjectives praising her. The tone is smoky and always expressive, yet with an agility and force needed for the technique of Baroque singing, and she is consistently a magnetic presence, radiant and sometimes defiant. In conclusion, I heartily recommend it. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Cecilia Bartoli could fill concert halls all over the world just by singing the her laundry list . She uses this power for worthy ends by researching forgotten operas and composers and presenting them to a wider audience. Antonio Vivaldi is hardly a forgotten composer but his operatic output is certainly overlooked. Bartoli makes a powerful case for these works. Each aria is treated as a mini-dramatic performance and Bartoli is a Brando-like method actor, she becomes the character. She exhibits jaw-jutting defiance after a display of machine-gun coloratura in "Siam navi…".* She looks as though the blood is draining from her body when she sings "Gelido in …". Then we get her radiant smile during "Zeffiretti …". The French audience at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées go wild. It is clear that the one factor above all others that has made her a star in opera houses and concert halls is her tremendous rapport with her audiences.

Also evident is her rapport with her musicians, Il Giardino Armonico, both as an ensemble and during the obligato passages for oboe, violin and flautino. The flautino is what you and I played at primary school when it was called a recorder, or, to be more precise, we played descant recorders. The flautino is an even tinier sopranino recorder pitched a fourth higher. While Cecila takes a breather, there is a concerto for two flautini in this concert with the conductor and flautino soloist Giovanni Antonini favouring a little plastic number.

The director of this film is the venerable Brian Large, doyen of opera directors. I am sure he did some judicious editing but there is still 15 minutes of applause in this 106 minute film. The audience will not let Bartoli go and she for her part seems reluctant to leave, performing encore after encore, beaming at the audience and beating her breast to indicate her emotion. Such is her crusading zeal to bring this sort of music to the masses she is coming to Birmingham in a couple of months' time. I have my ticket.

* Sorry IMDb will not allow me to give the full Italian titles