Cecilia Bartoli - Celebrated mezzosoprano performs three Southern California dates

For the first time in the United States, Grammy Award-winning Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli performs her best-selling recital program, “Sacrificium,” following her Grammy-winning recording of the same title, in an exclusive three-city California tour, including three dates in Southern California. Ms. Bartoli’s first West Coast appearances in six years, “Sacrificium” celebrates the art of the castrati during their golden age in the 18th century. Ms. Bartoli will be accompanied by pianist Sergio Ciomei. Southern California performance dates include Saturday and Thursday, March 21 and 26, 7:30pm, at The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, and Monday, March 23, 8pm, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Ms. Bartoli will conclude her tour with two performances at Cal Performances on Tuesday and Thursday, March 31 and April 2, 8pm, at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. Tickets are available for pre-sale to members and subscribers of The Broad Stage, Philharmonic Society, and Cal Performances starting Thursday, January 15, with a public on sale date of Thursday, January 22. This tour is made possible through the generous support from the Lloyd E. Rigler-Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation.  It is produced in association with U-Live/Universal Music Arts and Entertainment in London. Championed early in her career by conducting legends Herbert von Karajan, Daniel Barenboim and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Cecilia Bartoli has since enchanted millions of people all over the world with her exceptional voice and become one of the leading artists in the field of classical music. Prior to her Metropolitan Opera debut and Carnegie Hall recital debut, Ms. Bartoli made her Orange County debut in September 1995 at the invitation of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. She has since performed in Orange County in 2001 with Il Giardino Armonico and most recently in a recital in 2009. This will mark Ms. Bartoli’s first appearance on The Broad Stage.In 2012, Ms. Bartoli became the first woman appointed Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, and celebrated the appointment by organizing the first festival under her leadership around the theme of Cleopatra. The following year, the festival saw a new production of Bellini’s Norma, with Giovanni Antonini conducting the Orchestra La Scintilla and marking Ms. Bartoli’s stage debut in the title role. The production won the International Opera Award for Best New Opera Production of 2013, and the audio release of Bellini’s opera, also conducted by Antonini and starring Ms. Bartoli, won the ECHO Klassik award for Opera Recording of the Year—19th-century opera. In the last three years under Ms. Bartoli’s leadership, the Whitsun Festival has seen tremendous success and in November 2014, announced Ms. Bartoli’s contract with the festival has been extended through 2021. 2014 was a particularly busy year. In March 2014, Ms. Bartoli released two Rossini operas, Le Comte Ory and Otello, on DVD/Blu-ray. The following month, after an absence of more than 20 years from the Paris stage, she returned singing the role of Desdemona in Otello. Her most recent CD release St Petersburg, issued in October 2014, features Baroque arias composed for the court of Catherine the Great and two of her predecessors. Rediscovered by Ms. Bartoli herself in St. Petersburg, these hidden musical treasures of Tsarist Russia offer the first opportunity to hear her sing in Russian. The project reunited her with longtime collaborators I Barocchisti, famed Baroque ensemble, and organist and conductor Diego Fasolis. Ms. Bartoli’s extraordinary success as a best-selling classical artist is reflected by more than ten million audio and video releases sold and more than 100 weeks ranked on the international charts, along with the numerous prestigious prizes she has earned—multiple Golden Discs, five Grammys (USA), ten Echos and a Bambi (Germany), two Classical Brit Awards (UK), the Victoire de la Musique (France), the Concertgebouw Prize (Netherlands) and the Record Academy Award (Japan). Ms. Bartoli has been awarded the Italian knighthood and most recently, was given the prestigious Italian prize Bellini d’Oro, a Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (one of the highest awards of the Spanish Ministry of Culture), and the Médalle Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.