Organization

Set designer

Boris Pokrovsky

Lighting designer

Vladimir Ivakin

Singer

Countertenor

Alexander Polkovnikov

Julius Caesar

Kirill Filin

Tolomeo

Zlata Rubinova

Sesto

Soprano

Ekaterina Ferzba

Cleopatra

Bass

Vasily Sokolov

Achilla

David Tselauri

Curio

Roman Shevchuk

Nireno

Contralto

Victoria Preobrazhenskaya

Cornelia

Stage director

Conductor

Lev Ossovsky

Costume designer

Rafael Volsky

Choreographer

Lilia Talankina

Ayrat Kashaev

Viktor Volsky

Bolshoi Theatre

italià

Julius Caesar and Cleopatra

Moscow

Russia

Beethoven Hall

Julius Caesar and Cleopatra: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Public

Julius Caesar in Egypt

Approved

Georg Friedrich Handel's Julius Caesar in Egypt premiered on 20 February 1724 at the Theater Royal in London's Haymarket. It became one of the composer's greatest triumphs. Success accompanied her later, as evidenced by multiple renewals in London and performances on the continent - in Paris, Braunschweig and Hamburg.

The brilliant reception of the opera was facilitated by the brilliant premiere cast of singers: Senesino castrato (Julius Caesar), soprano Francesca Cuzzoni (Cleopatra), viola castrato Gaetano Berenstadt (Ptolemy), contralto Anastasia Robinson (Cornelia), soprano Margherita Durastanti (Sextus), bass Giuseppe Maria Boschi (Achilla). All of them were stars of the opera stage and for many years collaborated with Handel as participants in the enterprise he led. In the future, when new performers came into play, the composer himself rewrote the parts for the voices of a different tessitura. Thus, the role of the young man Sextus was entrusted to tenors, and the role of Ptolemy was played by the singer Francesca Bertolli (contralto). Even during Handel's lifetime, the name of the opera varied. For example, in Braunschweig it was called Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

The literary basis was a text written in Italian by Nicola Francesco Heim based on the libretto of the same name by Giacomo Francesco Bussani. As sources for the libretto, Heim pointed to the work of Caesar himself "On the Civil War", "Roman History" by Cassius Dio and the biographies of Caesar and Pompey in Plutarch's "Comparative Lives". The time of Gaius Julius Caesar's stay in Egypt was chosen as an eventful outline of the libretto. Most of the characters had real historical prototypes, the ups and downs of which were well known to the enlightened public both from the works of ancient historians (studied in schools and universities in the 18th century), and from Shakespeare's tragedies Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.

The driving spring for the development of the action was the struggle for the Egyptian throne of the sister and brother, Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, in which the first became the winner. An important argument in her favor was a love affair with Caesar, who arrived in Alexandria. A parallel storyline in the libretto was formed by the story of Cornelia and Sextus, the widow and son of Pompey, Caesar's rival for power in Rome. (After being defeated, Pompey and his family fled to Egypt, where he was beheaded. Subsequently, Caesar showed mercy to his orphaned family.)

The last lifetime performance of Handel's opera took place in 1737. But even later "Julius Caesar in Egypt" was not forgotten. Fragments of one of the largest baroque operas were performed in Westminster at the Handel Festival in 1784 and in London in 1787, and the score was published in London at the end of the 18th century in the first collected works of the composer, edited by Samuel Arnold.

But the stage life of the opera resumed only in the 20th century. The premiere of "Julius Caesar", which took place in Göttingen on July 5, 1922, was initiated by the art critic and researcher of Handel's work, Oskar Hagen, after which the opera quickly gained popularity. In the 1920s, it was performed in various European countries and the USA, including under the baton of Karl Böhm and Hans Knappertsbusch.

The edition of the clavier edited by Oscar Hagen approved a new look at the tessitura disposition of the soloists: the parts of Julius Caesar and Ptolemy were now assigned to low male voices. Subsequently, this made it possible for baritones Walter Berry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, basses Cesare Siepi, Boris Hristov and other famous singers to play the role of Julius Caesar. The part of Cleopatra in the middle - the second half of the twentieth century was performed by Renata Tebaldi, Tatiana Troyanos, Joan Sutherland, Lucia Popp, Montserrat Caballe, Cornelia - by Fedor Barbieri, Christa Ludwig, Sexta - Fritz Wunderlich and Franco Corelli. By the end of the 20th century Julius Caesar in Egypt became one of the most repertoire baroque operas.

The opera Julius Caesar premiered at the Bolshoi Theater on January 2, 1979. The event was historic: for the first time on the Russian stage, an opera by Handel was staged. The production team consisted of interns: conductor Vladimir Weiss, director Vadim Milkov, artist Viktor Volsky, and choirmaster Stanislav Lykov. The line-up of performers, headed by Pavel Zverev (Julius Caesar) and Lyubov Bogdanova (Cleopatra), was also youthful. The production was curated by the chief director of the Bolshoi, Boris Pokrovsky. Irina Arkhipova, Natalya Shpiller, Evgeniy Nesterenko and Panteleimon Nortsov worked as teachers-consultants with the singers.

The production was distinguished by an emphatically conditional and “laconic” style: the principle of the structure of the ancient Roman theater was used in the design of the stage space. The scene was almost devoid of depth, the actors were as close as possible to the audience, and the background of what was happening was a stone portico with statues of Roman generals in symmetrical side niches. The sustained interest of the public in the performance was evidenced by the duration of its release: for the last, sixty-fifth time, Julius Caesar was shown in 1986.

On November 3, 2002, the premiere of the opera "Julius Caesar and Cleopatra" took place on the stage of the Chamber Musical Theatre. As already mentioned, this version of the name was in use during the composer's lifetime. But in this case, the choice of such a name was not accidental: in the abridged two-act edition of the opera, made specifically for this production, the role of Cleopatra became equivalent to the role of Caesar.

The new play, staged by Boris Pokrovsky, had similarities with the production of the Bolshoi Theater. The parts of Julius Caesar and Ptolemy were still entrusted not to countertenors, but to more masculine-sounding baritones and basses. This is the expression of the principled position of the theater director, who does not strive for either authenticity that has come into fashion, or stylization. The traditional production, admiring the luxury of costumes and lighting, the laconicism of scenery and mise-en-scenes, and the liveliness of movement, has proved its right to exist. After the renewal, undertaken in 2012, it is still included in the repertoire - now of the Bolshoi Theater Chamber Stage - and fully competes with the numerous experiences of authenticists.

English

Julius Caesar and Cleopatra by Händel, De (2022/2022), Dirigit per Boris Pokrovsky,, Director musical Lev Ossovsky, Ayrat Kashaev, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia

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