By Stuart Jeffries [Guardian, 23 December 2010]

'I am, yes, I can admit it, quite sad about this," says Cecilia Bartoli gloomily. Outside, in the gathering dusk of her adoptive city of Zurich, it's beginning to snow. "My career - it could have been different." She throws a white scarf over the shoulder of her black polo neck sweater in a slightly irritated gesture.