Preghiera di Apertura e di Chiusura

The subtitle of this fine recital disc by Cecilia Bartoli is ''arias composed for Isabella Colbran: Rossini's primissima donna''. Colbran was around 30 years old when Rossini first wrote for her in Naples in 1815. (The opera was Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra.) But it is tempting to wonder whether even then she had a voice to match that of Signorina Bartoli, our newest and most lustrous Rossinian primissima donna. As a Rossini mezzo, Bartoli has most things one could wish for: tone of burnt umber, a brilliant top and rock-solid bottom with well-matched registers in between, and a temperament that can be fiery and affecting by turns. Much of this is on display in the recital's opening number, the closing scene from Zelmira (Naples, 1822) which the ageing Colbran almost certainly didn't sing as expertly as Bartoli does here.