Cecilia Bartoli Lends Vocals To The Film "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit"

From Russia With (No) Love: The villain Viktor Cherevin lets hubris get the better of him.

Movie goers are introduced to the Russian character of Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Brannagh) first by seeing only the back of his head while a doctor is trying to insert a needle into his arm. Under the scene we hear mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli singing Caccini's "Amarilli mia bella." The tune only returns at the end of the film when the Interior Minister Sorokin (Mikhail Baryshnikov) delivers to Viktor a dose of his own medicine. There may be no significance whatsoever in using the strophic song, but some parallels could be drawn. Inside the office of Mr. Cherevin hangs a painting, Feat of Cavalry Regiment at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 by Bogdan Willewalde, that depicts "the capture of a French regiment's eagle by the cavalry of the Russian guard at Austerlitz. The French lost only one eagle at the battle of Austerlitz and this happened when the Russian horse Guard caught the 4th Line regiment in the open and charged them." The lead players here - Viktor Cherevin, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Giulio Caccini - were all pretty power-hungry men that suffered defeats in some form or another. Learn more about the movie, the Napoleonic war, biographical information on Caccini, and listen to the full song "Amarilli mia bella" performed by Cecilia Bartoli, after the jump. [Source]