Cecilia Bartoli dedicates the Salzburg Whitsun festival 2018 to Rossini’s memory

Mozart had barely been dead for three months when Gioachino Rossini was born in
February 1792. Europe found itself in the midst of profound political upheaval. 76 years later, on 13th November 1868, Rossini died. And a new time of change in Europe was heralded by changing economic and social structures. In terms of musical history Rossini also fits between epochs: only a few months before his
death Richard Wagner’s Meistersinger and Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony received their world premieres. In 1868 both Camille Saint-Saëns and Edvard Grieg were working on their Piano Concertos and Anton Bruckner was preparing his First Symphony and his F minor Mass. That same year Jacques Offenbach’s opéra bouffe La Périchole was staged for the very first time. Rossini witnessed the rise of Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Franz Liszt. Having been spoiled with success, the composer abandoned the opera stage at the early age of 37, making way for new artistic trends and musical languages. Cecilia Bartoli dedicates the Salzburg Whitsun festival 2018 to Rossini’s memory.

Cecila Bartoli talks about her lifelong relationship with Gioachino Rossini’s music and reveals why she has called the programme for the Salzburg Whitsun Festival “1868 – Year of Ruptures” (18 May – 21 May 2018).

Cecilia Bartoli, photo Uli Weber / Decca

You have taken the year of Rossini’s death, whose 150th anniversary falls in 2018, as the inspiration for your programme. What is most significant for you about this year? What had the greatest influence on your programme?

The real spark of inspiration for this programme came when I realised that the world premiere of Wagner’s Meistersinger took place in the year of Rossini’s death. I was surprised that two musical planets that I regarded as entirely different had this point of contact and my amazement grew as I continued to research what else had happened around the world in 1868.

After setting off a real fire-cracker with Rossini’s La Cenerentola in 2014 under the motto ‘Rossinissimo’, you have chosen Rossini once again for the coming Whitsun Festival. What does this composer mean to you?

Rossini has been with me all my life: I made my debut in 1987 at the opera in Rome as Rosina. Since then it has always been a pleasure to come back to him over and over again. Singing the works of Rossini is always a particularly rewarding task for a singer. And his music just makes you happy! – I am proud that we can commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death in this way.

Since 2012, when you first directed the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, the programme has repeatedly focussed on female characters. What kind of woman is Isabella? And what does she have in common with Cleopatra, Norma, Cenerentola, Iphigénie, Maria (and Ariodante)?

I am looking forward very much to the role of Isabella! It will be another role debut!
Isabella is a really wily character: she’s no fairy tale princess but an intelligent woman who behaves in a modern and emancipated fashion.

Florian Wiegand, Helga Rabl – Stadler, Markus Hinterhäuser, photo Salzburger Festspiele / Marco Borrelli

What made you choose Rossini’s opera L’italiana in Algeri for Salzburg? Do you see contemporary relevance in it?

No, I wouldn’t want to force any explicit contemporary references onto it: of course in the libretto we encounter clichés such as the fate of a white woman among the macho men of North Africa for example. But it would be a shame to treat that too literally. I would prefer to emphasise the timeless qualities of the Italiana: how it manages to use humour and intelligence to subvert established patterns of plot and thinking.

Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier

It will be staged by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, with whom you have worked together in Salzburg on Giulio Cesare in Egitto (2012), Norma (2013) and Iphigénie en Tauride (2015), among others. What is so special about their work as directors?

Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier are two wonderful artists: their work is incredibly
precise and acute. Their characterization is similar to spoken theatre: their work with us performers starts well before the beginning of each scene and does not stop until even the tiniest gesture is settled and feels natural. And their musical preparation is excellent. The scenes are never built on the libretto alone, but from the music so that the result has the double impact of text and music combined.

Jean-Christophe Spinosi, photo Didier Olivré

Jean-Christophe Spinosi is no stranger to Salzburg, either: he conducted both La
Cenerentola and Otello at the 2014 Whitsun Festival. How do you work together with him?

I’ve known Jean-Christoph Spinosi for many years. He’s a great partner and his
ensemble is fantastic. It’s such a joy to play Rossini with an orchestra like that: everything is as clear, bright and bubbly as champagne!

Jonas Kaufmann, photo Julian Hargreaves/Sony Classical

When Bartoli calls, all the great musicians are available. What is your secret of attracting them to Salzburg?

It comes from having a career that has lasted over many years. As a musician, you are never alone: music is created by a range of performers working together. And when we are rehearsing a programme, then our work together is very intense. I have been lucky enough to appear with a great many outstanding artists and I like using those contacts. The artists I invite to Salzburg are people I know personally and I have a clear idea of the repertoire I would most like them to play. Our aim is always to promote excellence and to create something remarkable and precious that can only be experienced in Salzburg.

1868 marked the world premiere of Jacques Offenbach’s opera La Périchole, which you have programmed as a concert performance. What does this masterpiece of comic opera have to tell us?

I have to admit that I have not yet dared to do Offenbach, even though ideas keep
coming up that would point in that direction. Offenbach might be a kind of extension of Rossini, just from another time and another country. But in Offenbach I can also feel the lightness and effervescence that is essential to comic opera. Humour should never be heavy  or crude and with Marc Minkovski and his Musiciens du Louvre we have absolutely the right people, complete with an idiomatic French elegance.

Genia Kühmeier, photo Tina King

On Whitsun Saturday you will present Anton Bruckner’s motet Pange lingua, composed in 1868, alongside Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem – in the six movement version that was premiered on Good Friday of the year 1868. What do these two works by the contrasting figures Bruckner and Brahms have in common, apart from the year in which they were written?

Whitsun is an important celebration in the church calendar. Though there is relatively little religious music that was specifically composed for Whitsun. So I am especially pleased that we – in conversation with Markus Hinterhäuser – have hit upon these two important works that shed new light on the year 1868. Visitors to the festival will appreciate the opportunity to immerse themselves fully in this serious, spiritual music in between the two comic operas.

Maxim Vengerov, photo Classic CM

Maxim Vengerov performs Max Bruch’s virtuoso First Violin Concerto, also completed in 1868, with the Camerata Salzburg on Whit Monday. What is remarkable about this composer’s work and why is this piece representative of its time?

I admire Maxim Vengerov as one of the most talented musicians I have ever met. And when I discovered that Bruch’s First Violin Concerto – an absolute milestone in solo concert repertoire – had also had its world premiere in 1868, then I was quite clear that I really wanted Maxim to play it! And we’ve managed it!

Why is the Salzburg Whitsun Festival 2018 not to be missed?

Though it is quite tightly conceived around the year 1868, we want to offer a particularly diverse programme at Whitsun 2018: like a kaleidoscope with different facets radiating from one centre. As one big family of artists we will do our very best to make the performances and concerts a series of highlights to accompany and inspire the audience through Whitsun in Salzburg. (After Press materials)