Monday, February 28, 2011

Cecilia Bartoli Talks About Singing, Roger Federer and Lady Gaga

Thanks to Kinderkuchen for pointing out this video interview with Cecilia Bartoli. In the hour-long segment for Stars, conducted with Sandra Studer in German and Italian, the mezzo-soprano discusses what it means to be an opera diva today, using her vocal technique to sing everything from Vivaldi to Mozart, working with Daniel Barenboim and her thoughts about his project with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, studying Flamenco dancing before deciding to sing for a career (and the influence her mother played), how Farinelli was the Michael Jackson of his day, choosing Lady Gaga as her pop artist of choice (over Beyoncé and Gianna Nannini), what it means to get the respect of her colleagues, her adulation of Roger Federer and his talent for the sport of tennis, when she feels like she has "won" a performance in the theater, whether she's satisfied with her work (she admits to being a perfectionist), her first experience singing the Sheperd boy in Tosca as a child and how it launched a career of music, as well as plans for singing Cleopatra in Händel's Giulio Cesare for the 2012 Salzburg Festival. Watch the video after the jump.