Anna Bonitatibus - En Travesti

Anna Bonitatibus is one of the most successful mezzo-sopranos. On her new album en travesti, she presents – together with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the direction of Corrado Rovaris – the most famous arias written in the past 300 years for women performing male roles on the opera stage: so-called trouser roles. The fifteen arias begin with Handel and Vivaldi, extend through Gluck and Mozart, the Italians Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, as well as the French opera composers Meyerbeer, Offenbach and Massenet, the verists Mascagni and Puccini, and continue up to Ravel and Richard Strauss; the program concludes with a song from the film musical Victor/Victoria. The trouser role – a woman appearing in male clothing – was and is a popular feature of both spoken and musical theatre. That it gradually replaced only the parts originally written for castrati, after their tradition ended in the first half of the 19th century, is repeatedly noted, but this is not correct. Even in the time of the castrati, men were repeatedly portrayed by women in disguise, and these parts were interpreted by famous female singers. On her album, Anna Bonitatibus sings exclusively arias that were originally written for women; she thus opens up a different, novel perspective on the trouser role and allows listeners to experience great and immensely varied musical numbers from three centuries of music and opera history. A concept that is convincing and brings joy. The studio recordings for Bavarian Radio were made in the summer of 2016 and are now being released by BR Klassik.