At 9, she made her debut at the Rome Opera by singing the offstage role of the shepherd in the last act of “Tosca.”
At 14, she became a professional flamenco dancer.
At 17, she realized that music was her vocation and began studying singing again, with her mother.
Now, at 26, Cecilia Bartoli has become the opera world’s newest legend.
From her father, tenor Angelo Bartoli, whom she often watched in concert appearances, she learned expressive singing and interpretation. From her mother, soprano Silvana Bazzoni, her only formal singing teacher, she learned solid technique and natural singing.
And from her years as a flamenco dancer, she learned spontaneity and stage presence.
“Flamenco gave me a head start,” she said. “Normally, for many young singers, moving on the stage is difficult . . . where to put the hands, what to do with the legs.”
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But along with a once-in-a-generation voice, Bartoli has a marvelous onstage personality that makes her ideal for the same Rossini and Mozart roles that suit her marvelous vocal flexibility.
“I started to sing Rossini because he wrote very special music for coloratura mezzo-soprano,” she said. “And his roles are very near my personality.”
Bartoli’s arrival at the forefront of the operatic world has been in some ways gradual and in some ways meteoric. She won rave reviews for recitals at major venues in New York and San Francisco in 1991, splashed onto the Billboard charts in 1992, and made her U.S. debut in Houston in April 1993. Now easily one of the most sought-after singers on the circuit, she said she would like to work less and just sing six months out of the year.
She is aware of the importance of preserving her voice.
“It’s dangerous,” she said. “You have to be careful. It’s very important to think about what’s good for the voice.”
For now, her first teacher, her mother, continues to be her main “vocal policeman,” listening to her critically in concert, in opera productions and on recordings, and readily offering advice.
No one has ever objected to a little extra weight on an opera singer, but Bartoli could pass for a Hollywood or Roman starlet, in contrast to the traditionally hefty mezzo-sopranos. Her love for fast cars and her willingness to pose in leather and lace are contradicted by a soft-spoken calmness as she talked about her fear of flying.
“I am more nervous getting on an airplane than going on stage,” she said. “Sometimes I take wine, but it doesn’t help. That’s life.”
And, though she has no plans in that direction in the immediate future, she fully intends to marry and have a family.
“One day, I would like to have children,” she said. “It’s important. I don’t want to be an old singer with three dogs.”