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There is no comparaison between Marilyn Horne and Cecilia Bartoli. Bartoli's voice is still developping. Marilyn Horne, the greatest coloratura mezzo in our time is another kind: a "Mack truck" of a voice with awesome flexibility. Bartoli is at the opposite end of the mezzo spectrum from Horne. Where Horne's magnificient bulldozer can cruch an orchestra, Bartoli's wind its way through. By comparaison, Bartoli's is small - slender, intimate but her voice doesn't have to be larger, it is uncommonly expressive, full of musical sensitivity. Above all, she is Italian: the most liquid and vocal of languages in her natural expression.
Cecilia Bartoli doesn't having to be envious about Marilyn Horne. Her ability to negociate complex florid passages is demonstrated by a dazzling array of chromatic runs, cadanzas, leaps, cascades of coloratura. These qualities have placed her at the forefront of her profession and turned her into one of the world's most distingished Rossinian.
With the coloratura repertory, it is Bartoli's magic to transform what are basically showpiece into something meaningful. What she achieves throughout these arias is a wonderfully airy yet eloquent shaping of runs, while the leaps and scares are well-tuned and finely placed. Above all, she is Italian: the most liquid and vocal language in her natural expression.
An article in the New York magazine has described the "duelling divas" and it was written that: "There is no doubt who held the winning hard and played trump cards in this game of diva dynamics. CECILIA BARTOLI STIRS UP MORE FRENZIED DEVOTION AND PROFITABLE BUSINESS THAN BATTLE, NORMAN, HORNE AND STUDER EVER COULD, EVEN IN THEIR BEST DAYS".
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There is no comparaison between Marilyn Horne and Cecilia Bartoli 
Ms. B. has very shaky technique!
(Ron Baltimore)
