Anna Bonitatibus – En travesti (CD, Br-Klassik)

Anna Bonitatibus is one of the most successful mezzo-sopranos of our time. On her new album, entitled en travesti, she and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under the direction of Corrado Rovaris present the best-known and most important arias that have been written over the past three hundred years for women who appear in male roles on the opera stage: so-called trouser roles. The fifteen arias begin with Handel and Vivaldi, go 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 up to Ravel and Richard Strauss; the program closes with a song from the film musical Victor / Victoria. The trouser role, the woman appearing in men’s clothing, was and is a popular phenomenon in spoken and musical theater. The fact that this would gradually only have replaced the parts written for castrati, after their tradition ended in the first half of the 19th century for humanitarian and aesthetic reasons, is repeatedly noted, but is not correct. Even in the times of the castrati, men were repeatedly portrayed by women in disguise, and these roles were interpreted by famous female singers. Anna Bonitatibus only sings arias on her album that were originally written for women; it opens up a completely different, new perspective on the trouser role and allows audible impressions of great and extremely varied musical numbers from three centuries of music and opera history. Famous and lesser-known opera titles line up, popular musical numbers and real rediscoveries from baroque opera to Italian bel canto to contemporary musicals. A concept that is convincing and gives pleasure. The studio recordings of Bayerischer Rundfunk were made in summer 2016 and are now being published by BR Klassik.