Giulio Cesare

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Work data
Original title: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
First edition by Bezaleel Creake, 1724.

First edition by Bezaleel Creake, 1724.

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Nicola Francesco Haym
Literary source: Giacomo Francesco Bussani , Giulio Cesare in Egitto (1677)
Premiere: February 20, 1724
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Playing time: 3 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Alexandria and environs, after the battle of Pharsalus , 48 BC. BC and 47 BC Chr.
people

Giulio Cesare in Egitto , in German also Julius Cäsar ( HWV 17) is an opera ( dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Handel .

Emergence

With his contribution to the opera season 1723/24 of the Royal Academy of Music , Giulio Cesare in Egitto , Handel wrote perhaps the most consistently elaborated example of a baroque heroic opera. Here he threw everything into the pan that he had learned about musical theater up to that point.

libretto

For the libretto , Nicola Francesco Haym , who worked as secretary for the London Opera Academy in the 1720s and is responsible for numerous other texts by Handel, arranged a text by Giacomo Francesco Bussani with the same title, which was set to music by Antonio Sartorio in 1677 Venice was first performed. A second version of this libretto, which Haym also included, was made by Bussani in 1685 for the Milan court theater in the Palazzo Reale . The composer of this version is unknown. Haym shortened the recitatives of the templates and added new aria texts.

Since Handel had begun the composition for a different line-up, a large number of changes became necessary, which can still be seen today in the autograph : he rewrote some scenes several times. The discarded versions are of excellent quality and almost all have not yet been published. The then final version of the world premiere of 1724 he then put down in a personal copy, which was his director's score for the performances. The process of composing this opera was very laborious for Handel and, at nine quarters of a year, took a long time for him: he had started work on it in the early summer of 1723 (the exact dates are unknown, as this time he had forgotten to date his score) and it was not until February 20, 1724 that the premiere took place with the best and most expensive singers of the time.

  • The stars of the premiere

  • Francesca Cuzzoni sang Cleopatra.

  • Senesino embodied Caesar.

  • Margherita Durastanti was Sesto.

  • Anastasia Robinson sang Cornelia.

Cast of the premiere:

The opera was an immediate success and had thirteen performances this season, as the Chamberlain of the Prince of Wales Friedrich Ernst von Fabrice wrote:

«[…] Cenesino et la Cozzuna brilliant au dela des expressions […] la Maison ayant été aussy remplie à la Septieme representation qu'a la premiere. »

"[...] Senesino and the Cuzzoni shone inexpressibly [...] the house was just as well occupied at the seventh performance as it was at the first."

- Friedrich Ernst von Fabrice : Letter to the Count of Flemming . London 1724.

Handel resumed it (with changes) in 1725 (ten performances), 1730 (eleven) and 1732 (four): a total of 38 performances under his direction over the years, which was only exceeded by the 53 performances of Rinaldo .

Opera reached a similar number on the continent: first of all, in the summer of 1724 there was a guest performance by Handel's singers in Paris. Originally planned for May 1723, a year later the piece was to be performed alternately with Ottone at the Paris Opera . There are even printed libretti for this. For unknown reasons, however, the guest performance did not take place. What then remained of the project were concert performances of both operas in a private setting in the house of the financier and art patron Pierre Crozat in the summer of 1724.

In August 1725 the piece premiered in Braunschweig under Georg Caspar Schürmann as Giulio Cesare e Cleopatra and ran here in an unknown number of performances, also in 1727 and in August 1733. In the Hamburg Theater am Gänsemarkt the opera was first performed on November 21, 1725 under the title Julius Cæsar Jn Egypt and was heard forty times by 1737; however, a performance in August 1735 was canceled because no audience came. As with most acquisitions of Italian operas, the recitatives were translated into German, which was done by Thomas Lediard , who also designed the sets. The arias were sung in Italian. As was common at the Hamburg Opera at the time, there were also numerous popular, sometimes crude additions: if there were six dances in the first performance, funny peasants and a choir of eunuchs and concubines were added in later versions . Johann Georg Linike had set the new recitatives to music and was also the musical director of the performances. At one of the performances, the intermezzo Pimpinone or The Unequal Marriage by Georg Philipp Telemann was played between the acts. Five performances in 1727, which took place on the occasion of the birthday of the English King Georg Ludwig , deserve special mention. They had been initiated by the English ambassador in Hamburg, Sir John Wyche. In implementing the project, he was able to rely on the help of his secretary. Lediard was already familiar with the piece from its production in 1725, when he had made important contributions with the German translation and the stage decorations. This time he also took care of the lighting, fireworks and wrote the libretto for an additional prologue and epilogue set by Telemann, which he called The Joy and Happiness of the British Nation . Telemann's music on this is lost.

The first performance in modern times is due to Oskar Hagen , who prepared and directed the opera on July 5, 1922 for the Handel Festival in Göttingen . He had written a German version of the text and made significant changes to the form of the opera. For example, he had Julius Caesar - originally a castrato role - sung by a baritone. However, its version became extremely popular, and not only in Germany, and was shown in 38 cities, including Copenhagen , Zurich , Basel , Bern and Vienna , with more than 220 performances over the next five years .

The first performance of the piece in historical performance practice took place on May 19, 1985 in the Theater an der Wien during the Wiener Festwochen with the Concentus Musicus Vienna under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt .

With well over 200 productions in many countries, Giulio Cesare has proven to be by far the most popular opera of Handel in modern times. The theme is an important factor in the opera's popularity, because the historical love affair between two of the most famous figures of antiquity relieves the listener from having to unravel a complicated plot, as was common in the operas of that time.

action

Historical and literary background

In the "Argomento" ("preliminary note") of his textbook from 1677 Bussani names Caesar's work De bello civili (3rd and 4th book), the Historia Romana (42nd book) of Cassius Dio and the biographies of Caesar and Pompey in Plutarch's Bíoi parálleloi (parallel biographies) as sources. It mentions all the people involved, with the exception of the two small roles of Curio and Nireno. However, Sextus Pompeius was not, as in the opera Cornelias son, but the youngest son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and his third wife Mucia Tertia .

first act

At an old bridge over a tributary of the Nile. After winning the battle of Pharsalus against Pompeo, the Roman general and statesman Giulio Cesare arrives in the port of Alexandria , where the Egyptians give him a triumphant welcome. Cesare wants to track down Pompeo, who had found support and refuge in Tolomeo, the king of Egypt. The wife and son of Pompeo, Cornelia and Sesto, try together to persuade Cesare to agree to a peace treaty and a reconciliation with his opponent. This agrees and sends to Pompeo to initiate the reconciliation. Instead of Pompeo, Achilla appears as the emissary of the Egyptian king, who invites him to his palace. To prove that Tolomeo has changed sides and is offering friendship to the victorious Cesare, Achilla, on his behalf, places the severed head of Pompeo at Cesare's feet. While the fainting wife Cornelia is caught by Curio, who secretly loves her, this barbaric act misses the effect Tolomeo had calculated on Cesare. Instead of being impressed and happy about the new ally, he is outraged by the assassination of a Roman and furiously sends Tolomeo the message that he will seek out the nefarious man and hold him accountable for his deed. When Cornelia wakes up from her faint, she tries to kill herself, but Sesto and Curio prevent this. Now Sesto also vows to avenge his father's murder.

Back room in Tolomeo's palace. While Cleopatra dreams of becoming Queen of Egypt, Nireno appears and brings the news of Tolomeo's outrage, whereupon she decides to ensnare Cesare's heart in order to achieve her goal with his help. When Tolomeo joins them, the siblings argue about the legitimacy of their claims to the throne, as their previous guardian Pompeo is now dead. Cleopatra claims this right as the firstborn. She has nothing but contempt for Tolomeo, who does not take her ambitions seriously. Now Achilla brings the news that Cesare has rejected his gift and is furious with the crime. Achilla then advises him to have the Roman general murdered on the same day. He himself would agree to do so if he could get the hand of the beautiful Cornelia, whose beauty had long captivated him. Since Tolomeo sees in it new opportunities to make himself popular with Cesare's opponents in Rome, again changing sides, he goes into it.

In Cesare's encampment, with Pompeo's urn adorned with weapons in the center. At the urn with the ashes of Pompeo's head, Cesare philosophizes at a funeral about the transience of life and commemorates his great opponent. Cleopatra appears disguised as a lady-in-waiting, introduces herself to Cesare as "Lidia" from Cleopatra's entourage and begs for protection from the brutal Tolomeo. Since this is immediately carried away by her charm, he promises his help. Cleopatra, already thinking that she has reached her goal, is sure that she can now destroy her brother. After Cesare has left, she instructs her confidante Nireno to take the Roman that evening to her rooms, where she will prepare him a feast of love. Then she sees Cornelia coming and hides. She sees Cornelia standing in front of the urn in deep sorrow and hears her, Tolomeo swear death. When she takes a sword from the weapons at the base of the urn, Sesto steps up, snatches the sword from her and claims that the retribution has been carried out for herself. Cleopatra no longer holds it in her hiding place and she promises Cornelia and Sesto rich wages for this deed in the name of her supposed mistress Cleopatra.

Atrium in Tolomeo's Palace. In the evening, Cesare and his entourage and Achilla came to Tolomeo's palace. In the greeting, which remains frosty and peppered with hidden threats, they exchange insincere courtesies. As Cesare continues, Sesto and Cornelia suddenly appear in front of Tolomeo, insult him and challenge him to a duel. However, he was disarmed by Egyptian soldiers in a flash and captured at the king's command. This further instructs that Cornelia should be punished with gardening in the seraglio garden , whereby he concealed Achilla means that he is doing this for his sake. But Tolomeo himself has his eye on Cornelia. After he's gone, Achilla promises Cornelia and her son freedom if she marries him. Outraged, she rejects this. In desperation, Cornelia and Sesto say goodbye to each other before the soldiers throw him into the dungeon.

Second act

Caesar looks at Cleopatra ( Antikensammlung Berlin ).

Cedar Grove. In the background the Parnassus with the Palace of Virtue. In a cedar grove, Cleopatra had a scene set up showing the Parnassus: the secret tryst to seduce Cesare can begin. She instructs Nireno to lure Cesare by saying that “Lidia” would be waiting for him. When Cesare arrives, he hears lovely music while the Parnassus opens and the goddess of virtue emerges , surrounded by the nine muses . She sings so beguilingly and is such a radiant appearance that Cesare succumbs to her magic immediately, but the Parnassus closes again immediately. Nireno has to put the astonished Cesare off until later: "Lidia" would wait for him later in her apartment and then lead him to Cleopatra.

Seraglio Garden. Cornelia, tending the flowers with a small hoe, is harassed by Achilla. When she flees from him, she runs into Tolomeo. When the rejected Achilla announced that Cesare would soon fade, Tolomeo fueled this by promising him Cornelia again as a reward. But no sooner has Achilla disappeared than Cornelia is so harassed by Tolomeo that she angrily hurries away. Offended, Tolomeo decides to let her feel all his malice. When he leaves, Cornelia comes back into the garden. Desperate, she decides to commit suicide in order to evade her two tormentors. But the Sesto who steps in prevents this and still has an offer of help from Nireno up his sleeve. He wants to hide Cornelia and Sesto in Tolomeo's harem , so that Sesto can ambush him there and kill him if he appears there unguarded and without weapons to indulge in his amusements. Both gratefully accept this plan.

A lovely place. Cleopatra awaits Cesare and pretends to be asleep. He is so enchanted by "Lidia" that he would love to take her as his wife. She wakes up and wants to take Cesare at his word, but he backs off again, pointing out that she is in too low a position. The rushing Curio interrupts them and warns Cesare that Achilla is approaching with armed men and wants to kill him. When Cesare is about to flee, "Lidia" stops him briefly to identify herself as Cleopatra and to confess her love to him. Then he hurries off with Curio. In her fear, Cleopatra begs the gods for help.

In the harem of the seraglio. Cornelia, who is still trapped in the seraglio, has to fend off Tolomeo's advances, who has already put down his sword in order to have fun with her. Before Sesto, who was waiting for this moment, can take the sword to take his revenge, he is overwhelmed by Achilla rushing in. He reports that Cesare escaped, but jumped into the sea in a hopeless position at the harbor and drowned. Cleopatra, meanwhile, had allied with the Romans to avenge Cesare's death and they were on their way to Tolomeo's palace. Finally Achilla demands the reward for his loyalty: Cornelia. But Tolomeo rejects this and only mocks him, which in Achilla triggers the decision to go over to the Romans. Cornelia and Sesto are left alone. The desperate Sesto wants to kill himself because of the failed act of revenge. However, Cornelia prevents him and reminds her son that justice will not be ensured until Tolomeo's death. So Sesto swears revenge again.

Third act

Giambattista Tiepolo : The Banquet of Cleopatra (1743)

A forest near Alexandria. Achilla is determined to support Cleopatra in the fight against her brother, but Tolomeo emerges victorious from the fight. He puts Cleopatra in chains, who is now abandoned to her despair, because she has to assume that Cesare perished and that her cause is lost. At the port of Alexandria. Cesare has escaped the floods happily and oracles how things should go on now when Sesto, Nireno and the fatally wounded Achilla approach in search of Tolomeo, but do not notice him. Cesare overhears Achilla confessing to the two warriors, whom he does not recognize in their armor, that it was he who instigated the murder of Pompeo because he loved Cornelia and wanted to own her and also ordered Cesare's death. Dying, he gives Sesto a signet ring. On showing this ring, a hundred warriors hiding nearby would follow him. Cesare, who now shows himself, moves to the palace with Sesto in order to free Cornelia and Cleopatra with the help of the soldiers.

Cleopatra's room in the palace. The captured Cleopatra is waiting to be killed. Then Cesare rushes in and frees the beloved, who cannot believe her happiness. The equally overjoyed Cesare rushes away exuberantly to overthrow Tolomeo.

Throne room in the palace. Cornelia, harassed by Tolomeo again, pulls a knife to stab him. Then Sesto appears and again claims the act of retaliation for himself. Tolomeo falls at Sesto's hand: the Romans have won. Cornelia is proud of her son.

Alexandria Port. At the beginning of a ceremony, Nireno pays homage to Cesare, the new ruler of the world. When Cornelia and Sesto appear to Tolomeos with scepter and crown, Cesare crowns Cleopatra as queen, who now rules over Egypt thanks to her friendship with Rome; He takes Sesto in his arms and offers him his friendship. Friendship and love now ensure a long peace.

Short form of the plot

Cesare defeated his enemy Pompeo and pursued him as far as Egypt. Pompeo's wife Cornelia begs Cesare for mercy. He wants to grant it to her when the Egyptians bring him the head of Pompeo. The wife and son of the slain now swear to avenge his death. Cleopatra, meanwhile, wants the throne of Egypt for herself and has to get her brother Tolomeo out of the way. She joins Cornelia and her son Sesto in their plans for revenge. She also asks Cesare for support. Cesare falls in love with Cleopatra. Her brother Tolomeo assassinated him, but he escaped. Cleopatra is reported to have drowned while trying to escape. Tolomeo has Cleopatra captured. Then Cesare appears, who was able to save himself from the floods and frees her lover. Tolomeo is killed by Sesto, the son of Pompeo, when he harassed his mother Cornelia against her will. Cesare makes Cleopatra queen of Egypt and returns to Rome.

music

Handel's music captivates with its extraordinary ingenuity and his art of characterizing the characters. First there is Cleopatra, whose magical charisma and complexity can only be compared with Shakespeare's Cleopatra . Its shine outshines the whole opera. With her eight arias she covers a wide spectrum of emotions and each aria represents a piece of the mosaic of her multifaceted character. In addition, the increasing maturity of this woman can be clearly traced in her: Even in the first act she appears almost as an inexperienced girl, the teases her brother Tolomeo about his love affairs and draws certainty from their beauty and youthful recklessness that they can oust him from the throne. It is different already in the second act, when cunning is necessary to attract Cesare's attention and later she herself becomes a victim of the passion she sparked and for her life in her melancholy aria Se pietà di me non senti (No. 29) Cesares worries. In the interludes, the melancholy of an obbligato bassoon part creates a close interweaving of the voices, almost reminiscent of Bach . Finally, in the third act, in the scene of her imprisonment, she shows her greatest range of expression in the smallest of spaces , when she moves from the poignant despair in Piangerò, la sorte mia (No. 35) to the exuberant happiness of Da tempeste il legno infranto (No. 40) moved when Cesare frees her. The uniformity of the tonality of her arias is striking: six of them are written in high sharp keys (E major, A major, F sharp minor), which strengthens the drawing of their firm character.

Cesare's arias correspond to the typical portrayal of a magnanimous ruler in a baroque opera: four of his eight arias identify him as a high-minded conqueror with soldier virtues, while the other four show the soulful private man tormented by love. His music reaches its greatest depth in the famous Accompagnato Alma del gran Pompeo (No. 8), in which he ponders the finitude of human life at the grave of the murdered Pompeo, and in Dall'ondoso periglio / Aure, deh, per pietà (No. . 36) in the third act, an aria repeatedly interrupted by Accompagnato recitatives, in which he asks the gods to give him his beloved back.

Handel had no sympathy for Cesare's opponent. The malevolent youth Tolomeo, cat-like and addicted to pleasure, is an unpredictable and instinctual person. In his three arias he hardly has a melodic line to sing, on the other hand his phrases are torn off and often consist of single staccato words. His vowel lines are marked by constant large leaps in intervals that illustrate his capricious character. And the boastful opportunist Achilla, a ruffian and sloppy man, is only ever accompanied by unison violins in his three superficially pompous arias . The missing harmony voices reveal his mobish character. In his first aria Tu sei il cor di questo core (No. 15) his voice is also doubled by bassoons, which makes the expression even darker here.

Cornelia, the widow of Pompeo, is the tragic figure of this opera. But behind her grief you can see her noble soul. Cornelias section comprises three airs, two Ariosi and the beautiful lament - duet with Sesto at the end of the first act, Son nata a lagrimar / Son nato a sospirar (Nr. 16). Her first two arias are orchestrated with flutes (first a transverse flute , then recorders ), which brings us closer to the warmth of this woman. The first is her reaction to the murder of her husband, Priva son d'ogni conforto (No. 4), and is all the more moving since it is not in a minor, as expected, but in a major. It is only in her last aria in the third act that she is given a fast tempo, due to the relief at the good outcome. But everything is by no means good for her, as the trills of this aria resulting from chromatic ties reveal.

Of Sesto's five arias, Cara speme, questo core tu cominci a lusingar (No. 12, only with basso continuo ) is the only one that speaks of hope, it is in major. The other chants remain in the minor key and are dominated by Sesto's thoughts of revenge.

Giulio Cesare is Handel's most richly orchestrated opera, more colorful and varied than in any other of his works since La Resurrezione (1708). In the symphony that opens the final scene and in the final chorus, two pairs of horns in different moods are used at the same time. The fanfare tones of the horns in G and D give great happiness to the triumph of the lovers. In addition, the orchestra, which sits in the ditch, has recorders and transverse flutes and split bassoons. A violin, the oboe and, which is rare, a horn (in the well-known aria Va tacito e nascosto , No. 14) are used as solos in the opera . The beginning of the second act is a musical masterpiece. In order to cast a spell over Cesare and seduce him successfully, Cleopatra stages her rendezvous with a great spectacle: in an act of the nine muses on Mount Parnassus , she herself appears as the "virtue" : an amusing irony in an opera that glorifies sexual passion outside of existing marital ties. For this purpose, Handel also composes for a stage orchestra and, in addition to oboe, violins, viola, bassoon and cellos, also demands a number of “exotic” instruments that he otherwise rarely explicitly prescribes: harp , theorbo and viola da gamba . At the beginning of the scene, the stage music plays alone, but when Cleopatra begins her aria V'adoro, pupille (No. 19), which is exemplary of the boundless sensuality that permeates this opera, the instruments in the orchestra pit join in too .

As you can see in the two examples (Cesare's solo scene Aure, deh, per pietà , No. 36 and the Parnassus scene mentioned), the opera is not a mere sequence of da capo arias separated by recitatives . Instead, instrumental movements, accompaniments, cavatins and duets, even short ensembles, loosen up such a strict sequence. An unconventional solution can also be found at the beginning of the opera, when the dance movement that usually concludes the overture, here a minuet, suddenly joins the choir cheering the arriving Cesare. The surprise of this use of voices is intensified by the fact that the choir does not begin at the beginning of a phrase, but only after the orchestra is in the third bar of a new one. This chorus, like that of the conspirators who come up with Caesar's coda of All 'lampo dell'armi (No. 27) in the second act, was sung backstage by predominantly play-free soloists (and perhaps reinforced by extras). In these choirs, Handel notes exactly which voice is to be sung by whom: Soprano - Durastanti (Sesto), Alto - Robinson (Cornelia), Tenor - Bigongi (Nireno) and Berenstadt (Tolomeo), Bass - Boschi (Achilla) and Le Guare or La Gare (Curio). It is noteworthy that Curio is the only actor on stage in both scenes and should still sing along, while Cuzzoni (Cleopatra), who appears for the first time in the fifth scene, was not intended to sing along at the beginning of the opera.

As is usually the case, the traditional versions of a Handel opera correspond to the existing singing ensembles at the time of the corresponding performance. Since Handel performed the opera in four different seasons, there are also four different versions, which have been handed down in the three preserved original libretto prints. But there is a fifth version: that of the autograph , i.e. a version zero. This shows that Handel was apparently not yet clear about the final cast of the opera when setting the text. This applies particularly to the parts of Cornelia and Sesto, which are initially designed as soprano and alto and only later appear in the opposite pitch. Handel also planned another alto role (Berenice, Cleopatra's confidante). While the chants Cornelias and Sestos return mostly transposed in the version of the world premiere of 1724, the music that was already written for Berenice was partly inserted into other parts (e.g. those of Tolomeo, Cleopatra and Cesare, the received the famous aria Va tacito e nascosto , No. 14, from Berenice's part). The autograph also offers a number of other arias, sketches and drafts that have remained unknown until now and provide an interesting insight into Handel's compositional style.

For the resumption of 1725, Handel revised the score a second time. The main change compared to the premiere version was that he changed the role of Sesto from the soprano to a tenor part, as the tenor Francesco Borosini , who came from Vienna at the beginning of September 1724 , the first great Italian tenor in London, with a vocal range of two octaves, should take on the role. Meanwhile the smaller parts of the Curio and the Nireno were deleted. But since in some secondary sources the mezzo-soprano Benedetta Sorosina, who performed in London in 1724/25, is named as Nerina instead of Nireno, it could be that this role was taken into account in individual performances of this season.

The versions of the work from 1730 and 1732 differ only in the abbreviations and rearrangements within the arias, but not in the pitch and vocal characteristics of the individual people.

Structure of the opera

first act

  • 1. Coro - Viva il nostro Alcide Scena I
  • 2. Aria (Cesare) - Presti omai l'egizia terra Scena I.
  • 3. Aria (Cesare) - Empio, dirò, tu sei, togliti Scena III
  • 4. Aria (Cornelia) - Priva son d'ogni conforto, e pur speme Scena IV
  • 5. Aria (Sesto) - Svegliatevi nel core, furie d'un alma offesa Scena IV
  • 6. Aria (Cleopatra) - Non disperar; chi sa? se al regno Scena V
  • 7. Aria (Tolomeo) - L'empio, sleale, indegno Scena VI
  • 8. Recitativo accompagnato (Cesare) - Alma del gran Pompeo Scena VII
  • 9. Aria (Cesare) - Non è sì vago e bello il fior nel prato Scena VII
  • 10. Aria (Cleopatra) - Tutto può donna vezzosa Scena VII
  • 11. Arioso (Cornelia) - Nel tuo seno, amico sasso Scena VIII
  • 12. Aria (Sesto) - Cara speme, questo core tu cominci a lusingar Scena VIII
  • 13.Aria (Cleopatra) - Tu la mia stella be Scena VIII
  • 14. Aria (Cesare) - Va tacito e nascosto Scena IX
  • 15. Aria (Achilla) - Tu sei il cor di questo core Scena XI
  • 16. Duetto (Cornelia, Sesto) - Son nata a lagrimar Scena XI

Second act

  • 17th Sinfonia Scena II
  • 18th Sinfonia Scena II
  • 19. Aria (Cleopatra) - V'adoro pupille Scena II
  • 20. Aria (Cesare) - Se in fiorito ameno prato Scena II
  • 21. Arioso (Cornelia) - Deh piangete, oh mesti lumi Scena III
  • 22. Aria (Achilla) - Se a me non sei crudele Scena IV
  • 23. Aria (Tolomeo) - Sì spietata, il tuo rigore sveglia Scena IV
  • 24. Aria (Cornelia) - Cessa omai di sospirare! Scena VI
  • 25. Aria (Sesto) - L'angue offeso mai riposa Scena VI
  • 26. Aria (Cleopatra) - Venere bella, per un istante Scena VII
  • 27.Aria e Coro (Cesare) - Al lampo dell'armi / Morrà, Cesare, morrà Scena VIII
  • 28. Recitativo accompagnato (Cleopatra) - Che sento? Oh Dio! Scena VIII
  • 29. Aria (Cleopatra) - Se pietà di me non senti Scena VIII
  • 30. Arioso (Tolomeo) - Belle dee di questo core Scena IX
  • 31. Aria (Sesto) - L'aure che spira tiranno e fiero Scena XI

Third act

  • 32. Aria (Achilla) - Dal fulgor di questa spada Scena I
  • 33rd Sinfonia Scena II
  • 34. Aria (Tolomeo) - Domerò la tua fierezza Scena II
  • 35. Aria (Cleopatra) - Piangerò la sorte mia Scena III
  • 36. Recitativo accompagnato ed Aria (Cesare) - Dall'ondoso periglio / Aure, deh, per pietà spirate Scena IV
  • 37. Aria (Cesare) - Quel torrente, che cade dal monte Scena V
  • 38. Aria (Sesto) - La giustizia ha già sull'arco Scena VI
  • 39. Recitativo accompagnato (Cleopatra) - Voi, che mie fide ancelle Scena VII
  • 40. Aria (Cleopatra) - Da tempeste il legno infranto Scena VII
  • 41. Aria (Cornelia) - Non ha più che temere quest'alma Scena IX
  • 42nd Symphony / La Marche Scena Ultima
  • 43. Duetto (Cleopatra, Cesare) - Caro! - Bella! Scena Ultima
  • 44. Coro - Ritorni omai nel nostro core Scena Ultima

orchestra

Two recorders , transverse flute , two oboes , two bassoons , four horns , viola da gamba , harp , theorbo , strings, basso continuo (cello, theorbo, harpsichord).

Discography (selection)

  • Valhalla WLCD 0024 (1950): Cesare Siepi (Giulio Cesare), Renata Tebaldi (Cleopatra), Elena Nicolai (Cornelia), Gino Sinimberghi (Sesto), Antonio Cassinelli (Tolomeo), Fernando Piccinni (Achilla)
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli; Dir. Herbert Albert (129 min)
New Symphony Orchestra of London; Gov. Richard Bonynge
Munich Philharmonic ; Dir. Ferdinand Leitner (211 min, German)
Orchestra of the American Opera Society; Dir. Arnold Gramm
Munich Bach Orchestra; Dir.Karl Richter (243 min)
English National Opera Orchestra ; Dir. Charles Mackerras (184 min, English)
Concerto Cologne ; Dir. René Jacobs (239 min)
La Grande Écurie et La Chambre du Roy ; Dir. Jean-Claude Malgoire (221 min)
Les Musiciens du Louvre ; Dir. Marc Minkowski (219 min)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment ; Dir. William Christie (DVD, 223 min)
Le Concert D'Astrée ; Dir. Emmanuelle Haïm (DVD, 217 min)
Il complesso barocco ; Dir. Alan Curtis (219 min)

literature

Web links

Commons : Giulio Cesare  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: On the Civil War  - Sources and Full Texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Christopher Hogwood: Georg Friedrich Händel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). Translated from the English by Bettina Obrecht. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 978-3-458-34355-4 , p. 146 f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Winton Dean: Haendel: Giulio Cesare. Translated from the English by Liesel B. Sayre. harmonia mundi, Arles 1991, p. 27 ff.
  3. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 978-3-7618-0717-0 , p. 122.
  4. ^ Winton Dean, John Merrill Knapp: Handel's Operas 1704–1726. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-525-7 , pp. 437, 501.
  5. ^ Winton Dean, John Merrill Knapp: Handel's Operas 1704–1726. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-525-7 , p. 507.
  6. ↑ a b c d Silke Leopold: Handel. The operas. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-1991-3 , p. 245 ff.
  7. ↑ a b c Bernd Baselt: Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 (Unchanged reprint, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-0610-4 ) , P. 224 f.