Castrato She Isn't

I really wonder if there’s anybody out there who can outmatch Cecilia Bartoli in vocal acrobatics. She makes the voice sound like it were a flute, a violin or a pianoforte. Only the castrati of the 17th and 18th centuries could sing like this.

She doesn't have a powerful voice and it leaves a different after-taste sometimes. But there's no doubt she is a vocal virtousi well-suited to the Baroque--used to be dominated by the castrati, or castrated males who specialized in female roles and now totally extinct-- and florid Bel Canto repertoires.

Here's a video clip of Antonio Vivaldi's Agitata da due venti...