ZURICH -- About 15 years ago the mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli seemed to be taking New York by storm. Featured in three new productions at the Metropolitan Opera from 1996 to 1998, she even had a book to seal the stardom deal: Manuela Hoelterhoff's ''Cinderella and Company,'' published in 1998, told the story of the contemporary opera industry...
ON MySpace carving out a virtual niche of your own takes a few clicks of a mouse. In the real world the job never ends. As classical divas at the head of the class Cecilia Bartoli and Renée Fleming share native talent, personal glamour, a puritan work ethic, a capacity for self-criticism and also something extra: a scholar's taste for intellectual...

CECILIA BARTOLI just may have found the role of a lifetime: the diva Maria Malibran, who was born in 1808 and died in 1836. ''Malibran was the Madonna of her age,'' Ms. Bartoli said recently from Paris, a stop on her grand European tour of dozens of concerts showcasing the music and personality of this short-lived star. Part of the caravan is a...