Alessandro Parisotti put together three volumes of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century arias in Rome in the 1880s, and called the whole series Arie antiche. These three books have since become the bane of almost every student singer's life, since their simplicity makes them ideal teaching fodder--but the same quality also makes them fearsomely difficult to perform convincingly. Singers often begin a recital with a couple just to prove that they can. Cecilia Bartoli takes the unusual step of performing a recital entirely made up of these pieces--and finds hitherto unsuspected riches in them, without ever sacrificing the simplicity necessary for stylistic accuracy. There is little here of her jaw- dropping coloratura technique, and much more of her ability to let the different colours of her wonderful voice tell the story of the song. She transforms a classroom war-horse like "Caro mio ben", for example, into a moment of pure spiritual intensity and longing. And she makes Vivaldi's portrait of a spurned wife ("Sposa son") truly heartbreaking. This is wonderful singing. --Warwick Thompson