The gleaming smile in the cover shot belongs to a young mezzo-soprano coasting at the top of her game, thrilled at the chance to show off in the 400-year-old Teatro Olimpico in Vicenze. The cheers interspersed throughout this June 1998 concert are her adoring fellow Italians. Count yourself lucky to be able to join them and Cecilia Bartoli with a recording that faithfully reflects the scrumptious range of both her voice and emotional dynamics.
Claudio Monteverdi gave music history a series of musical ideas that still have an impact today - ostinato basses like the "walking bass", the ciaccona or the lamento bass with its four descending tones, dramatic dirges like the Lamento d'Arianna, accumulated dissonances like am End of the Ballo delle ingrate, which sometimes touches the boundaries of the atonal.