Sex and Absolute Power Music & Vision 23 March

Sex and Absolute Power
Handel's 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Six theatres of three different countries have joined forces to prepare and to implement this new production of Händel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto; the opera houses of Ferrara, Ravenna and Modena in Italy, of Bremen and Halle in Germany and of Poznam in Poland. An interesting cooperation in times when the lyric muse is rather short of cash and finds very few financiers to grant her a credit line. This review is based on the 18 March 2011 performance in the lovely Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna.
Giulio Cesare in Egitto is Händel's fifth full-length opera for the Royal Academy of Music. It is the work that once for all made the Saxon composer the real King of the London musical scene; in the very field of Italian opera, Händel's primacy had been challenged by his former assistant and later associate (before becoming a keen competitor), Giovanni Bononcini. The quarrel had also political overtones as Händel was being supported by the Royal House, the Hannover, of German origins just like him, as well as by the Whigs, whereas Bononcini had the sponsorship of the Prince of Wales and of the Tories. Thus, both the Royal Palace and Parliament were involved in the dispute. Nonetheless, the incredible success of Giulio Cesare in Egitto adjudicated the artistic litigation forever. Bononcini's best known operas at that time (such as Astarto and Il Farnese) have disappeared from the programs even of the companies specialized in baroque music, whilst Giulio Cesare in Egitto was staged for several seasons at the King's Theatre in London during 1724-1730 and travelled as far as Hamburg and Brunswick between 1725 and 1737. Also, it was one of the first operas by the Saxon to be revived during the Händel's renaissance in the 1920s: it was produced in Göttingen in 1922, although using a heavily transformed version of the score; such a version was also followed in many subsequent revivals.

From left to right: Andrea Mastroni as Curio (Caesar's confidente), Sonia Prina as Caesar, Riccardo Novaro as Achilla, José Maria Lo Monaco as Cornelia and Paulo Lopez as Sextus in Handel's 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto'. Photo © 2011 Marco Caselli Nirmal. Click on the image for higher resolution
Like other operas by Händel, a production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto has to face several hurdles. Firstly, the key male roles are written for 'castrati', a species now extinct; specifically, the protagonist of the original production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto was 'Senesino', then the most famous 'castrato' on the London scene. In recent revivals in the late 1960s and early 1970s -- I remember those at the New York City Opera in 1966 and at Munich's National Theatre in 1970 -- the problem was handled by lowering the vocal writing by three octaves and using a bass-baritone (Triegle in New York as well as in a long US tour, Fischer-Dieskau in Germany, and Christoff in several Italian theatres). Secondly, a specialized baroque orchestra is required; until the early 1980s, the score was deeply manipulated to be played by a regular opera house orchestra but more recently Gardiner, Christie, Curtis, Harnoncourt and others have made earnest efforts to return to the original writing. Thirdly, the sheer length of the opera (250 minutes of music) and as many as forty-five numbers (often arias with a double 'da capo') requires skillful editing to be digested by modern audiences, even because the complicated action of political and sexual intrigues does not take place so much on stage but is narrated by the eight soloists in their arias. Fourthly, staging the work requires as many as eleven changes of scene in three acts; from Egyptian harbors, to battlefields, to palaces, to prisons, to a 'garden of delights' especially tailored for seduction. A daunting undertaking. In the City Opera 1966 production, key elements to success were Tito Panebianco's stage direction and Ming Cho Lee's sets inspired by Piranesi's engravings -- a basic set with elegant black-and-white painted drops.
Giulio Cesare in Egitto is a story of deeds and misdeeds, where sex is closely intertwined with power politics. Only a few of them (such as the seduction scene) happen on stage. What we are given by the librettist and the composer is a kind of inner drama, but the music itself, full of the most subtle kind of suggestions and understated depiction fills a great deal of what the stage itself does not and cannot hold. Especially in the rather prude (at least officially) British eighteenth century: the core of the plot is the use of sex and erotic attraction (by young Cleopatra) to ascend to absolute power. Still, quite a topical issue.

A scene from 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto'. Photo © 2011 Marco Caselli Nirmal. Click on the image for higher resolution
The score is by far Händel's most sumptuous, not only in its stylistic variety and melodic richness but specifically in its use of the orchestra which includes two pairs of horns, crooked in different keys, and a stage band with harp, theorbo and viola da gamba. This makes possible astounding musical richness of such scenes as Cleopatra's vision of Parnassus.
In this production, the musical direction is entrusted to Ottavio Dantone and his Ravenna-based Accademia Bizantina; they use, as far as feasible, instruments similar to those of Händel's times to have sonorities like those originally conceived. However, in the seduction scene there is only one orchestra, in the pit. The score is, necessarily, cut; nonetheless, the opera lasts three and a half hours with only a rather short intermission. Obviously, the seduction scene is a jewel with the proper sonorities: Cleopatra's aria V'adoro pupille is beautifully sung by Maria Grazia Schiavo, but her sure and perfect emission is enhanced by ravishing instrumental accompaniment. Less famous than the seduction scene is the ambush sequence in the third act; Dantone, the orchestra and the rest of the cast depicted it very effectively; it is based to a large extent on recitative while from the pit a growing instrumental tension prepares Caesar's aria Al Lampo dell'Armi. A real dramatic and musical innovation in Händel's period and an anticipation of twentieth century opera with its extensive use of declamation.

Sonia Prina as Caesar and Maria Grazia Schiavo as Cleopatra in 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto'. Photo © 2011 Marco Caselli Nirmal. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dantone and his orchestra are also remarkable in Ceasar's aria with solo horn, Va, tacito. In addition, they catch well the viperish character of Ptolomy (Filippo Mineccia) and the ambiguous tint of Cornelia (José Maria Lo Monaco) and Sextus (Paolo Lopez) -- both heroic and tearful. The devious Achillas, always ready to betray someone (including himself) is effectively interpreted by Riccardo Novaro.
The soloists are all top-notch, both vocally and dramatically. Sonia Prina (Caesar) and Maria Grazia Schiavo (Cleopatra) are well known internationally, also because frequently they are the stars of baroque festivals such as Halle's and Beaune's. On the stage, though, Sonia Prina looks more like a sex-starved adolescent than a fifty-four-year-old well experienced commander. (Fifty-four was Caesar's age in 48 BC when historically the Roman conquest of Egypt took place and Cleopatra became the Queen of the Hellenistic country.) They have a clear delivery and indulge in acrobatic vocalizing. José Maria Lo Monaco, good as Cornelia, is more dramatic than lyric. Paolo Lopez is a real discovery -- at least to me. He is Sextus, son of Pompey (beheaded when the opera starts) and Cornelia. The role was initially written for a soprano or a castrato, but in 1727 Händel himself re-wrote it for a tenor. Paolo Lopez is a countertenor, a rarity on the Italian musical scene, and an actor with a lot of humor who gives a gaysh touch to his incarnation of Sextus. The villains (Ptolomy and Achilla) are Filippo Mineccia and Riccardo Novaro, two agile bass-baritones. Floriano D'Aura (Nireno) and Andrea Mastroni (Curio) as Cleopatra's and Caesar's 'confidents' -- almost a must in baroque operas -- were also good.

Maria Grazia Schiavo as Cleopatra in 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto'. Photo © 2011 Marco Caselli Nirmal. Click on the image for higher resolution
The stage set and direction were quite innovative. In recent productions, Giulio Cesare in Egitto has been moved to modern times. In Madrid and Bologna, the action was on a Hollywood stage set where, with a bit of irony, a 1930s Cecil B DeMille movie was being shot on the opera libretto and score (both drastically cut). In another production, Peter Sellars depicted Caesar as a United States President attempting to sort out the problems of the Middle East. In this production, Alessio Pizzech (stage direction), Michele Racciarini (stage sets), Cristina Aceti (costumes) and Marco Cazzola (lighting) place the action in Africa during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century colonial wars. Caesar is somewhat like Joyce's Ulysses looking for the meaning of the universe and of his own self. Cleopatra is not merely a sex object able to use her attributes to escalate the power ladder, but the archetype of wisdom and knowledge. In general, the 'primitive' Egyptians, and their black African slaves, seem wiser (and more honest) than the 'modern' Romans. And Alexandria is a Sarajevo where cultures and religions mix and merge to prepare for eighteenth century rationalism. Not a trivial view. It works well in the first part, but it does not fit the second part where the second and the third act are merged because Alessio Pizzech and his associates color it excessively with blood and even rapes in the battle and prison scenes, whereas Händel's score is based on perfect harmony where the drama is always inside.
The audience appreciated the performance, even though a few were fatigued by its length and left before the final curtain fall.
Copyright © 21 March 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
RAVENNA
ITALY
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