Cecilia Bartoli: Viva Vivaldi

1) Di due rai languir costante (Foa 28); 2) Siam navi all'onde algenti (L'Olimpiade); 3) Non ti lusinghi la crudeltade (Tito); 4) Gelosia (Ottone in Villa); 5) Domine Deus (Gloria); 6) Armatae face e anguibus (Juditha Triumphans); 7) Zeffiretti, che sussurrate (Ercole sul Temodonte); 8) Gelido in ogni vena (Farnace); 9) Anch'il mar par che sommerga (Bajazet); 10) Dite, oime (La fida ninfa); 11) Agitata da due venti (La Griselda); 12) venturata navicella (Giustino)

A full-length concert from the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris, featuring beautiful and rare arias from Vivaldi's operas. This Brian Large film showcases the repertoire from the bestselling Vivaldi Album (Decca, 1999) which catapulted Cecilia Bartoli to worldwide stardom. Bartoli's spectacular vocal pyrotechnics are supported by world-class Baroque ensemble and collaborators on the Decca album, Il Giardino Armonico.

Bartoli executes coloratura runs with a strength and panache that can only be described as spectacular. I have a large collection of Baroque music and have attended hundreds of concerts of the music from this period and have never heard anything like it. But it's not only athletic, it's entirely musical. She's backed up wonderfully by Il Giardino Armonico with idiomatic perfection. This is a marvelously enjoyable DVD which I expect to watch many times. Very highly recommended.