+++
author = ["authors/jenna.md"]
categories = "News"
date = "2015-05-25T21:27:00-04:00"
lastmod = "2015-06-17T15:23:00-04:00"
primary_image = "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmopera/image/upload/v1545409169/media/webhook-uploads/1432603602950/Bartoli__Cecilia_Decca_Uli_Weber.jpg.jpg"
primary_image_credit = "Photo courtesy of Decca/Uli Weber"
publishDate = "2015-05-26T12:08:00-04:00"
related_people = ["scene/people/cecilia-bartoli.md"]
short_description = "I don&#039;t know how I feel about the recent announcement that Italian mezzo Cecilia Bartoli will star as Maria in Leonard Bernstein&#039;s West Side Story at the 2016 Salzburg Whitsun Festival."
slug = "i-just-met-a-girl-named-cecilia"
title = "I just met a girl named Cecilia"
+++

I don't know how I feel about the [recent announcement](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/cecilia-bartoli-to-sing-maria-in-west-side-story/?_r=0) that Italian mezzo Cecilia Bartoli will star as Maria in Leonard Bernstein's *West Side Story* at the 2016 Salzburg Whitsun Festival; Gustavo Dudamel will conduct. She'll probably be cute as all get-out, but I'm just having a hard time picturing it. Maybe this is how people felt when Ben Heppner announced he'd be joining the cast of Mirvish's *Titanic The Musical*.

What do you guys think? Will Ceci be a charming Maria? I'll admit I'm totally curious to hear an Italian Baroque specialist play a Puerto Rican immigrant in English, in Salzburg. The cultures, they're colliding, guys.
