One of the most popular divas of our time will give two concerts at the Palace of Arts so Hungarian audiences can finally enjoy the peerless artistry of the Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in a live performance. We have marvelled at her on television and radio, and of course, on CD of which she has sold six million copies winning numerous prizes and featuring in the international charts for two hundred weeks. Her performances are characterised by her immaculate virtuosity, stunning intellect, sensitive lyricism and uplifting humour and she has enjoyed frenetic success on both the operatic stage and concert halls. Her repertoire is particularly rich, featuring amongst many others works by Mozart, Rossini, Gluck, Vivaldi, Paisiello, Bellini, Donizetti, Salieri, Haydn, Handel and Halévy. Her exciting solo programmes are preceded by intensive collaborations with musicologists and as a result, she has helped revive forgotten or unknown works and composers. In the early 18th century, the church authorities in Rome – pointing to the Holy Year of 1700 and then the earthquake that struck the city – banished the popular genre of entertainment, opera. Musical theatre did not die because inventive composers turned to “operas in disguise”, oratorios, which by their choice of alluring themes, created tremendous drama. Cecilia Bartoli has assembled a new programme from works by Georg Friedrich Handel – who died 250 years ago –, which were performed in those years in Italy, This programme will be heard for the first time at the Palace of Arts.

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