Cecilia, I’ve just met a girl named Cecilia? The Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli plans to sing the role of Maria next year in a new production of “West Side Story” under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel at the 2016 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, the festival announced Friday.
The role is a departure for Ms. Bartoli, the artistic director of the festival, who has sung Cleopatra in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” and the title role in Bellini’s “Norma.” But she has made “Romeo and Juliet” the theme of the festival to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and has programmed ballets, concerts and films it has inspired.
She wrote in a program note that she looks forward to staging Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” which she described as a 20th-century masterpiece.
“The wish that Bernstein obviously expressed, that in the midst of the Broadway ensemble, the lovers’ roles, Maria and Tony, could be sung by operatic voices, opens up a wonderful new repertoire to me,’’ she wrote, “including hits like ‘Tonight,’ ‘One Hand, One Heart,’ ‘I Feel Pretty’ and ‘Somewhere.’ ”
Mr. Dudamel will conduct the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. The festival will run from May 13 through May 16, 2016.