This Limited Edition format is packaged as a hardback book with CD (in the style of previous Bartoli releases) and lavishly illustrated.

Rome at the dawn of the 18th Century.The Church declares: ALL OPERA IS PROIBITA - BANNED!

On this long awaited new album, Cecilia Bartoli uncovers the glories of oratorios written in Rome at a time when opera performance was forbidden by the Church. Although many of these arias are written for female characters, public performances by female singers were also forbidden, so the roles were often sung by male castrati.

This recording is not only a rediscovery of a lost musical world of arias from the 'Forbidden Operas' of Handel, Scarlatti and Caldara, but a unique celebration by Bartoli of a period in the musical history of her home city of Rome.

The 15 showpiece arias were composed by three of the most acclaimed composers of the Baroque. The program includes 8 World Premiere Recordings of arias by Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara. They are each incredibly virtuosic pieces that the wonderful talent of Cecilia Bartoli is uniquely equipped to perform. This album follows the same singer's outstanding collections of arias by Vivaldi, Gluck and Salieri which have done much to revive the neglect of these composers’ operas.

Outstanding accompaniment from Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre completes the high artistic merit of this enterprise.

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