Bartoli to make a second Scala comeback
mainAlexander Pereira, the incoming sovrintendente, is telling the Austrian press that he has persuaded Cecilia Bartoli to make a Scala comeback.
Pereira badly needs a feather in his cap after having had his job tenure shortened to just 18 months by an angry Mayor of Milan. His coup, however, is less than it seems.
Bartoli boycotted La Scala for 19 years over its fickle audience and archaic work practices. She was brought back by Daniel Barenboim in December 2012 and said nothing at that time to suggest that she would never return. Pereira has merely confirmed a renewed relationship, negotiated by Barenboim, between Italy’s biggest-selling opera singer and the artform’s battered crucible.
It’s important to note that she will sing a Vivaldi programme, so hardly a “comeback” to La Scala in the implied sense of a fully staged opera performance. I do, however, hear the ching of the cash registers!
Pereira would be wise not to bring his Norma production with Signora Bartlos from Salzburg to La Scala as this would cause an even bigger scandal there. Vivaldi is something elase and might do her a favour. Bartoli with her manierism will always remain a question of taste