“Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli is preparing to take on a new role: director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo,” writes Michael Cooper in Wednesday’s (12/4) New York Times. “Ms. Bartoli, 53, who will be the first woman to lead the company, was announced on Tuesday in the company’s ornate home, the Salle Garnier. She will begin in 2023…. Ms. Bartoli will continue to appear at opera houses and concert halls around the world after taking the helm in Monte Carlo. But her appointment is the latest example of the way she has been expanding her portfolio in recent years…. Since 2012, Ms. Bartoli has been the artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in Austria…. In 2016, she and the current director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Jean-Louis Grinda, created Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, a period-instrument ensemble…. The Opéra de Monte-Carlo has … drawn many of opera’s most famous singers since it opened in 1879. Its intimate jewel box of a theater … is sometimes thought of as a smaller cousin of the Paris opera house [Charles Garnier] designed … Ms. Bartoli … made her debut in Monte Carlo in 1989 … in a performance of ‘The Barber of Seville.’ ”
Posted December 5, 2019
