With opera in full swing in Europe and multiple artists beginning to tour, the opera world seems to be getting back to a somewhat new normal. This week Cecilia Bartoli embarks on a European tour with  Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, returning to the stage after months of quarantine and after canceling her Salzburg Whitsun Festival.

Bartoli will perform a baroque program that she will take to Zurich, Salzburg,  Ravello, Lucerne, and Martigny, marking one of the first European tours since the lockdown. Bartoli has performed with Les Musiciens du Prince, an orchestra created in spring 2016 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, based on an idea initiated by the mezzo, throughout Europe to great acclaim.

In an interview, Bartoli noted, “I got inspired by the tradition of European court music of the 17th and 18th centuries when every European court, every prince or czar – or czarina – engaged and maintained their own chapels and orchestras. I thought it would be wonderful to recreate such an orchestra.”

Following the tour, the mezzo will embark on another important series of concerts entitled “Farinelli and His Time” with the orchestra. The concerts, which will also take her to a number of European cities, will be dedicated to the famous castrato singer, a singer Bartoli has already paid homage to in her latest album “Farinelli.”

For those not able to attend the tour, Bartoli is slated to return to Baden-Baden for Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” one of the mezzo’s signatures roles and to the Opernhaus Zurich for “Alcina.” The mezzo will also return to the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and to the Opera de Monte Carlo, where she will become the General Director in 2023.

Recordings

Bartoli has one of the most extensive discographies of modern artists. She has recorded with Decca for over 20 years and has released several solo albums as well as complete operas. For those who are interested in the upcoming two tours, we recommend her latest two albums “Farinelli” and “Vivaldi.”

Here is Bartoli performing the finale to “La Cenerentola.”

Here she is in a segment from “L’Italiana in Algeri.”