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Triumph in the Windy City !!!! 
Krannert Center performance details available
(Mariska)
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How would I be able, to write a review after Pen's wonderful, eloquent, emotional and detailed review about that spectacular concert in Chicago....if I wouldn't have started writing one already .So as I did start ,my review will maybe overlap with some things, Pen already mentioned. Having her review now, asks me ,to rewrite mine a bit ,though.
First of all, I have to point out, what a huge delight my time in Chicago was and that was not only due to Cecilia’s wonderful concert .It was great ,to once again meet one of those contributors form the forum ,who have enriched our mutual experiences with Cecilia .It was a joy ,to meet you ,Pen and I hope (and think ,it certainly will happen) ,we'll meet again in your great Windy City. Thanks for spending time with me and thanks again for that review ,which left all of us speechless. Luckily ,I was there ,so it made me think back to that incredible night.
Cecilia's North American tour started with a cold -:( and she had to postpone her Toronto concert, as you all know. MY vacation time crossed her paths twice, first in Vancouver (review will follow),where I met Shirley face-to-face for the very first time and I enjoyed that as much ,as I enjoyed Cecilia’s concert and you all know, that means a lot. So my trip collided (in a musical sense ) with Cecilia and the funny thing is ,that my two attended concerts were affected by her cold ,both ,in Vancouver and in Chicago ,as she had to cancel her signing sessions, so there wasn't the usual after-concert meeting ,I got so used to have here in Europe.. Well ,it took me some time ,to overcome my jetlag and also ,I was thrown into work again the day after my arrival ,but ,knowing this in advance, I had made quite some notes for the upcoming review ,otherwise ,I would be lost now, no ,not really, cause Cecilia really was spectacular in Chicago and there were some things ,she did like never before ,more later. I have never before been in an US concert hall. After my first Canadian concert in Vancouver two weeks before Chicago, I was graced with the beauty of that Chicago Symphony Hall, which has a great reputation .Right in the beginning ,before even the orchestra did appear ,it was clear to me, that the acoustics were better than in Vancouver (something ,you immediately hear, when the hall is fully seated and you hear people talking ).Sitting in the 4th row of the stalls in Chicago and in the 6th in Vancouver, the experience ,acoustically, was more enjoyable in Chicago. While in Vancouver, I heard the sound of an air-conditioning somewhere far above my head, but constantly humming away (I’m very picky though and others might not have noticed it at all),in Chicago ,you could hear a needle drop during many parts of the concerts ,I’m sure, Cecilia asked them ,to turn off the air-conditioning after her starter-cold, cause it also got warm during the concert. In my opinion the acoustics in Chicago reflects Cecilia’s voice in a more natural way. My seating was perfect ,but I couldn’t see the shoes on her devine feet -:) ,cause the edge of the stage blocked my view. The rest of her glorious appearance though, was fully visible .Her green dress with the long train, her diamond Rolex, earrings and bracelet sparkled ,as would she ......When she entered ,she got an applause ,other singers might get after a full concert . She radiated ,smiled into the audience ,greeted us with the wonderful start of her program "Qui resta....L’alta Roma".The recitative razor-sharp, she attacked the notes and text, filling each word with so much meaning ,with some accents of specific words or parts of the text. Her gentle "Qui ferma ogni pensiero" suddenly brought peace, just to bring the recitative to an end with an exalted "tanti portenti" .Right here, after the recitative ,two things were clear from the start : Cecilia’s voice had completely recovered and more than that : she was in exceptional great shape that night ,she eventually proved these assumptions to be true. Another thing ,which has become so much part of her performances ,you can’t actually call her concerts any other way ,cause she is the not only the vocal artist (and what vocal fireworks she presented) ,but also an actress and ,last but certainly not least , a conductor .Her accompanying orchestras like La Scintilla, FBO or others don’t really need a conductor. They need a first violin and that post is perfectly well occupied by Ada Pesch ,who led the orchestra through this evening as much as Cecilia did herself. The chemistry between Ada and Cecilia and both of them and the orchestra is electrifying ,you can actually see sparkles ,when they play music .And ,yes, some critic said it in a review, it’s playing ,cause joy is involved and I can’t remember this to be more true than with Cecilia and La Scintilla .Ada and Cecilia very often had eye contact, the orchestra adapted to Cecilia’s sometimes drastically change of moods ,on her conducting with the face ,a look, her shoulders and hands, no with her whole body ,even with some loud breaths like they all were ONE entity .This was brilliant art !!!!!! I return to the aria "L’alta Roma".After a loud breath by Cecilia ,almost a wheeze filled with joy ,the orchestra was unleashed and presented the aria with ferocious energy ,especially the trumpets were fantastic in their accompaniment (Pen, down there in the stalls ,it sounded perfect ,she wasn’t covered by them ,you could easily hear both and at the same time Cecilia almost sounded like a trumpet). Cecilia’s embellishments were technically perfect, powerful, intense ,the aria felt like a ball-lightning, making it’s way through the hall ,bouncing back and forth and never loosing it’s power, it was an eruption of sound . She could have powered whole Chicago with that energy .Those runs with the company of the trumpets sounded unearthly ,to describe the sound and joy to hear it is almost impossible. But then ,she came to the middle part, more gentle ,trying ,to persuade ,that peace is the better solution, she sang those words with a smile in her voice .The da capo part was, again attacked, even more powerful , the long line of embellishments partly sung on one breath .She kept he tension till the end of the aria ,which ended unison with the trumpets and applause erupted from the Symphony Hall. A very smart decision ,to start the program with that aria .On the one hand ,it introduces the overall theme of prohibited opera in Rome and on the other, it lets the audience sit at the edge of their seats already. But we were silenced immediately with “Vanne pentita a piangere” .The beauty of her sound in the first word “Vanne” is indescribable ,it touched me deeply but also almost hurt in the same moment, cause it was filled with so much sadness ,grief. When she sang “pentita a piangere” ,her voice almost broke, I don’t know ,if that was intentional or if she was overwhelmed by the music herself. .She did a little variation with “Vanne” already ,singing a little crescendo/diminuendo ,just barely .This aria is one of the many in the new program ,which require and incredible breath control ,as the legato lines are so long ,it’s almost impossible ,to sing as a woman. And yet, those arias have been composed for castrati but with female singers in mind. Cecilia proofed, it is possible ,to sing them, although sometimes ,it seems unbelievable ,to witness it. In the middle part, she was full of anger ,just to calm down again. The da capo “Vanne” was sung on another long breath ,a crescendo ,then up and down and ending with a trill. Her approach was even more gentle than in the first part. You could hear a needle drop in that second part ,everyone was in awe (side remark : this audience was great indeed, they were educated ,silent during the many piano passages, but also very ,very enthusiastic ,later on ,it sounded more like a football game than a concert, and that not holding back was grrrreat -:) ! ) .How is it possible to sing with such unearthly beauty? Her improvisations here especially were on those long legato sections sung with one breath .The applause came after a short pause ,giving Cecilia a bit of time ,to return. With “Sparga il senso lascive veleno” ,and her ardor left no open question .She gave all her expressivity combined with impeccable embellishments. In the da capo part ,she sang even more trills and runs, unbelievable. Her body was shaking ,bouncing back and forth ,her face all determination. The first orchestral part of the night ,the overture of “Santa Francesca Romana” from Caldara gave the brilliant orchestra a chance ,to shine. Ada Pesch’s leading was faultless ,the sound of the orchestra brilliant ,with that crisp extra ,we know from period instruments. Their accuracy ,their playfulness were most prominent and their joy was infectious. Allessandro Scarlatti’s “Caldo sangue” was next, another of those slow arias with long legato lines, sheer beauty ,but incredible sad. The dying Ismaele sings in the most intense way till his death. Cecilia used her utmost desperation ,to convey the arias contents to the audience .Unearthly pianissimi, her voice almost dying ,breaking .The emotions ,she conveyed were hard to bare and made one feel like watching a loved person die right in front of our eyes .Then in the middle part, one last uproar, a powerful lament ,to avenge his death, sung in a constant emotional crescendo ,accompanied by the pulsing sound of the orchestra then again almost a fainting of her voice ,to return to the da capo part ,even gentler, more pianissimo, touching ,grief, sadness, melancholy .Cecilia did much more than just sing ,she acted ,she created a stage for an unknown opera and she sang one of the most moving arias ,you’ve ever heard. Then her voice died ,as the character did .The orchestra faded away .Cecilia was obviously not completely in this world, but she returned fast enough ,to smile and signal ,she was ready for the next aria. The short “Ahi qual cordoglio..Doppio affetto” was a little storm of mixed feelings of fear and courage. Heavily ornamented ,Cecilia ran through all of them ,just to add some more in the da capo part, her singing a smile. The words were comprehensible even in the fastest runs. She obviously enjoyed it and played with the notes. The next orchestral part was the overture of “Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno” ,which this orchestra has a special relation to .As the period orchestra for baroque opera, they had the chance ,to play that score many ,many times ,some of the performances with Cecilia s Piacere (but she then got ill and had to cancel two performances back in 2003) .The orchestras dynamic ,their ability ,to express so many emotions is incredible. They can play as fast as the wind ,just to slow down to almost zero speed and to play pianissimi ,not heard of. Wonderful. Cecilia’s next arias were more than just a choice out of the new album ,they represent a part of her personal history and the starting point for this new album. For me ,it also placed me back into a seat of the Opera House in Zürich at that last performance ,when Cecilia did sing with a cold, after she had to cancel the two performances before .That certainly was the explanation for her acting even more than in the other arias. Chiudi,chiudi” was a lovely starter, Cecilia trying to convince us to close our eyes, not only with her voice ,but also with her smile and her hands didn’t succeed though .We were wide awake ,people were smiling during the aria, the was a gentle laughter running through the audience at the end of the recitative and at the end ,when the applause started. One of the highlights of that evening was an evergreen “Lascia la spina” . I would bet, Cecilia mentally wasn’t in that hall, but in Zürich in that last performance in 2003 .Well, I was. How can you sing an aria ,you have sung dozens of time without getting bored or boring for the audience? Any singer ,who has a problem with that ,should take lessons from Cecilia. I don’t know, how she did it this time , but she really transported me into another world. Handel has been perfidious in creating that aria. Listen to the text: Leave the thorn/pluck the rose/you are seeking/your own sorrow-An unseen hand/will bring you/hoary old age/ere your heart imagines. So what exactly does it say? It say, pick the day, carpe diem, be happy and enjoy life ,cause you are getting old sooner than you imagine ,so it is an invitation, to make the best of our lives .The music though tells a different story with it string-heavy gentle and sad sound. The sad part is in the middle actually. When the orchestra started ,everyone in the hall was silenced, not a sound to hear, then Cecilia sang the first part of the aria.....with a smile on her face, she managed to work against the orchestras sadness .Her sound was the purest and most gentle ,you can imagine .In the middle part, she addressed the audience with a serious face and her hands reaching out to the audience ,she told us the message of this aria .Then in the reprise ,the orchestra played oh so gentle and piano, it almost hurt, Piacere/Cecilia resigned ,the joy ,the smile was gone and only sadness was left. Her voice was a whisper and yet sustaining the sound, only, to sing even more pianissimo in the last repetition .There was the trill on “dolor”, she loves to add. The voice almost faded away and in my mind, I saw her sitting on the chair on the stage of the Zürich Opera House ,sad and complete devastated. She made me feel the same .The orchestra played the rest ,as gentle and pianissimo, as she did .The applause started a bit too early for my taste ,I was barely there. The applause rose and rose. Then ,for a second ,I saw tears in Cecilia’s eyes, she almost broke ,but managed ,not to . The last aria of the first half “Come nembo che fugge col vento” was another storm ,Cecilia created that evening. With high-speed, she plunged into the embellished beginning ,she sang impeccable trills ,even series of embellishments with one breath and on the side played with Ada’s ,who accompanied her on the violin. The da capo part was so brilliant ,even faster, as Cecilia gave the orchestra the signal for that .Her improvisations were fresh ,spontaneous ,sparkling ,breathtaking and the final trills ascend to the highest note then lead into a long hold last note.. The audience couldn’t hold back their enthusiasm, they clapped, shouted, whistled, it really was like we were at Wrigley Field .But ,oh what a joy it was ,to show Cecilia our admiration and she loved it ,even though she seemed a bit surprised by the force, that first closing applause had. After the well deserved break, we were graced by another orchestral piece of music, this time Corelli’s Concerto grosso in F major, Opus 6 ,No 12. La Scintilla were shining, captured all moods, especially the third movement, the Adagio was beautifully sad and brilliantly expressed. The next “Ahi quanto cieca….Como foco” is one of those pieces, where everyone in the audience is smiling, because it has a lush and beauty sound and Cecilia herself was a smile -:) already in the recitative. In the aria, she added some trills and sounded completely relaxed after the first demanding half of the concert. The next aria, another highlight “Si piangete pupille dolente” ,put all of us in awe .The orchestral introduction already set the mood ,there was that pulsing rhythm of the strings, Cecilia took over .Here again ,she had to sing incredible long legato lines on one breath and managed perfectly ,even adding some trills . When she sang those phrases ,you thought ,in the next second ,she would take a deep breath , just to hear her go on with the one breath, she took minutes ago -:) and then , when finally, she just HAD to breathe, she still added another phrase ,absolute breathtaking indeed. Before the middle part, the pulsing strings were even more accentuated. With “grave [dolor]” ,she did it again ,sang an unbelievable long line on that word. During the reprise, I had the feeling ,to feel more than just her grief about her loss, ,there was a second level of emotion .She cried in grief ,but also ,she was filled with anger .She stretched her arms away ,her hands were fists, trembling, as did her body .Her face showed all the deep grief ,she expressed in her singing and even more. But then, she returned to a wonderful gentle last repetition, till finally the pulsing strings moved the piece to the end. The next and last orchestral piece, the introduction to the second part of “La resurrezione “ didn’t get applause ,a funny thing, and led into another two arias of “Il trionfo”. When the orchestra started the introduction to “Un leggiadro giovinetto”, Cecilia wasn’t on stage ,but then ,she walked in ,slowly and sang this absolutely beautiful aria with lots of smiling and playing with the gentlemen in the first rows. Again, she made us smile in complete happiness. Then ,she changed her role from Piacere to Bellezza : “Io sperai trovar nel vero”. This aria is truly a masterpiece of atmosphere, sadness, melancholy .The introduction and a big part of the aria is just accompanied by the oboe and the continuo .The young Jasu Moisio played the oboe with dazzling security and tenderness, even did some improvisations (which Cecilia certainly encouraged) and the teamed continuo was an impeccable match. They hit the mood so perfectly , Cecilia couldn’t look any different than sad. But in her sound also had an overpowering beauty . When Cecilia first sang this aria some time ago , I didn’t like it too much ,always thought ,the arias of Piacere suited her better .In between ,I had the chance ,to listen to this piece more often and each time ,my fondness for it grows. Cecilia didn’t just sing this aria, she acted in front of us, she was the personified disappointment, she didn’t find, what she was looking for in the first place. In the reprise, Cecilia slowed down the aria and gave it even more weight and melancholy and pensiveness. The following applause ,the first thing ,you heard form the audience since the beginning was a warm and deserved one. The finale was the dazzling ,breathtaking ,overwhelming, stupendous ,unbelievable aria “Disserratevi o porte d’Averno” ,an outbreak of pure energy ,with an extremely embellished line ,which ,as sung by Cecilia ,got even more embellishments .There is no way ,to describe the way, Cecilia sang that aria. She was pure joy, and the dreadful gates ,she was singing of, were yielding to her ,the Queen of Coloratura. Her improvisations can’t be described ,she sang trills and ascending runs on an already ascending line and did so many impossible things, you won’t believe me anyway -:). If you have heard the aria on CD ,you must have been blown away .Hearing her singing that live, it really let’s you doubt the reality of hearing it. If the first part was incredible already, the reprise was not of this world, witnessing such singing almost makes you laugh cause it is IMPOSSIBLE, to sing that way. There is only one possible description of this aria, but you excuse me, if I won’t use it in the forum -:) With all those embellishments, you could follow each of the words ,she were embellishing on !!! Her conducting got to it’s highest mastery ,as she had to lead them ,as she was improvising ,cause they couldn’t possible know, what she would create. After the last note of the orchestra ,the Chicago Symphony Hall went absolutely mad, you can imagine ,the people were behaving like in a football stadium after a victory….and it was a victory ,a victory or singing, of music, another of Cecilia’s triumphant concerts. The audience, cheered, they shouted, stamped, whistled, they gave her standing ovations, they were simply completely mad .Cecilia did it once again. She led this incredible program to another highpoint, which couldn’t possibly be topped. After a long applause, she gave us the first encore, Bonocini´s “Ombra mai fu”. There couldn’t have been a more gentle aria than that one after the eruption of “Disserratevi”. When she sang the first “Ombra” ,there was an incredible silence and each of us was melting away by the sound of her voice and I’m sure, there were many tears in the eyes .Such a concert is emotional so overwhelming ,you can’t help yourself. But when she sang the reprise and improvised on the second “Ombra” ,the silence was absolute, while listening to her voice ,the absence of any other noise was an overwhelming feeling itself. After that ,the audience once again jumped to their feet ,cheered, whistled an so on. She was celebrated ,like she deserved. She gave us two other encores “Da tempeste in legno infranto” and for those of you ,who might have been in Zürich for “Giulio Cesare” ,they surely saw her standing on the stage of the opera house ,being Cleopatra. Dazzling embellishments, joy and wit filled that music and ,really, what else should one wish after coming home ,or in this case, after having sung a triumphant and successful concert. I can assure you, that the improvisations in Chicago once again were different from those in Zürich or in Vancouver or in Bochum, she is just unable ,to sing anything the same way twice -:) .the audience got more and more excited. Scarlatti´s “Che dolce simpatia” was maybe thought as a desert, funny ,fast the kind of encore, she likes to sing as the finisher .Again ,she was a smile and when the flute started ,there was an amused murmur running through the rows. But believe it or not, the crowd was still hungry and could have gone through the entrees again, I’m sure. The applause didn’t stop at all and she was forced ,to return again and again . She thanked the audience herself, crossed her arms in front of her chest as a sign of returned love ,she smiled ,she bowed ,she let the orchestra get their deserved applause. But ,like Pen already said, she had to cancel the signing session ,so she thanked the audience by a final encore. So she fed us the real deseert,the reprise of “Disserratevi”, this time with different embellishments, of course, what do you think? Again the crowd got on their feet and the applause only grew ,there was only one way ,for Cecilia, to finally leave the hall: she took Ada Pesch’s hand and together ,they left the hall, followed by the rest of the orchestra………… I have no more words. Klaus
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Bellissimo! Grazie!
by Pen, 2005, Oct 26
Delicious indeed!!!!
by Ruben, 2005, Oct 27
There is no need for more words.....
by Mariska, 2005, Oct 28
Cecilia found her equal...
by Ton, 2005, Oct 28
Thanks...
by Claire , 2005, Oct 28
This forum is closed.
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