A BREATH OF FRESH ARIA MEZZO-SOPRANO CECILIA BARTOLI CONTINUES TO DEFY CONVENTION WITH HER MUSICAL CHOICES.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

Cecilia Bartoli, the celebrated Italian mezzo-soprano, is more than the sum of her considerable parts.

Much more. Yes, her rich, chocolaty voice and peerless ability to ornament even tricky musical lines help account for her wide appeal and the nearly universal critical praise she enjoys. So does the uncommon charisma she exhibits at recitals - one of which the Los Angeles Opera is presenting tomorrow night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

She's also a canny programmer, almost always confounding expectation with unconventional musical choices - often arcane selections that virtually no other singer could get an audience to accept. It's the same with many of her CDs, recordings that would doubtless slip into oblivion were someone else's name and face on their covers. (Anyone for songs by Giulio Caccini? Or perhaps something from Bizet's unfinished opera ``Ivan the Terrible''?)

Take her latest disc, an album for Decca almost defiantly titled ``Opera Proibita.'' The title refers to a collection of ornate sacred arias composed in Rome during the first 10 years of the 18th century, when the Catholic Church had banned theatrical performances, including opera. Yet Bartoli talks about this collection of florid works by Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara and the young George Frideric Handel, as if it were a group of famous Rossini arias. She does not plead their case. She does not suggest that their value lies in novelty. In sum, she does not apologize for bringing to people's attention music that they do not already know, music that may challenge them.

``The quality of the music is very high,'' she says in excellent English, speaking by phone recently from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her ship has docked en route to New York. ``I wanted to know a little more about Handel coming to my own town, Rome. And I wanted to know which composers were active at that time. And I discovered Scarlatti and Caldara as well. And so I decided to share, to make an album and then perform in concert. This music is full of energy, drama, passion, etc. So it's not really sacred music. It's more operatic music.''

Selections from the record will compose the bulk of Monday's recital program, which will be accompanied by La Scintilla, the early-music ensemble of the Zurich Opera.

Martin Bernheimer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic now writing from New York for the Financial Times, credits Bartoli's success to force of personality. ``In a world of nice cookie-cutter, physically attractive but not very interesting artists,'' he says, ``she's a vibrant individual. She has a warmth and directness that are unmistakable. You can listen to a mezzo on the radio and not know if its Jennifer Larmore or Denyce Graves or whomever, but there's no mistaking Bartoli.''

As to the voice itself, it's not big, but its dusky color, wide range and elasticity make it very special. But nature's gifts alone do not account for its versatility. ``I had to grow my technique,'' says the mezzo. ``And I still have work on my voice.''

Though the vocal pyrotechnics that are certain to accent tomorrow's concert may sound effortless when Bartoli sings them, she insists they are not. ``This music was originally performed by castrati, which is very demanding for women,'' she says. ``I find such long phrases hard work. It's like how you get to Carnegie Hall - practice is definitely necessary.''

Given how popular she is, it's a wonder that Bartoli is not overexposed. But the mezzo knows the wisdom of the old showbiz adage: Always leave them wanting more. She parcels out her public appearances just so.

``She's very fussy about what she does and when she does it,'' says Bernheimer. ``She releases her recordings carefully - one year Gluck, Vivaldi next, Salieri after that. She must have some special gene for career planning, for she hasn't made a false move yet.

``The smart thing about her is that she's not like anyone else I can think of,'' he adds. ``For a while, we thought of her as the Rossini artist of our time, but she's not doing that anymore really. Then we thought of her as a great Mozart singer. But, again, she seems to have moved away from that. She's quixotic. And because of that, she's successful.''

The eminent English critic John Steane has written that the ``sheer virtuosity'' of Bartoli's singing is inseparable from its expressiveness. Acknowledging the compliment, she says, ``Music means expressions. Virtuosity without expressiveness is just gymnastics.''

CECILIA BARTOLI IN RECITAL

What: The celebrated mezzo soprano sings music by Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Caldara.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $25 to $100. [phone] or www.losangelesopera.com.

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no caption (Cecilia Bartoli)