Download Giulio Cesare in Egitto 2012

SALZBURG FESTIVAL 2012
Giulio Cesare in Egitto 2012
Konrad Kuhn on Handel’s world theater around Cesar and Cleopatra.
“He who is satisfied with listening to this music without seeing what it expresses – who
judges this art as a purely formal art, who does not feel its expressive and suggestive power,
occasionally so far as hallucination, will never understand it.” Romain Rolland wrote this in
1910, long before the so-called “Handel Renaissance” began in the more recent history of
opera. In the meantime it goes without saying that Handel’s operas belong to the repertoire of
major opera houses and festivals and nowadays they are mostly played in the original version.
For Giulio Cesare in Egitto this means over three hours of music. Giovanni Antonini and his
ensemble Il Giardino Armonico will unleash the necessary energy. In the field of historically
informed performance practice the internationally highly sought-after conductor has celebrated
several triumphs in particular together with Cecilia Bartoli. Giulio Cesare in Egitto is a colourful
score. In 1724, with this work Handel firmly established his popularity in London as an opera
composer. His star still shines brightly: aria after aria the piece proves itself to be a masterpiece.
The plot of the opera appears to be rather confused. Constant scene changes make it seem like
a scenario for a film. The locations – Caesar’s encampment, Tolomeo’s seraglio, a pleasure
garden, the banks of the Nile, or the port at Alexandria cannot be realistically depicted on stage.
It is more appropriate to think of Elizabethan theatre, the rough boards of Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre. For the two stage directors from France, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, this means
total theatre! It is not about psychological theatre but is a matter of portraying emotions and
situations in a theatrical way. The facets of the main characters are divided into various arias.
Caesar and Cleopatra each have no less than eight (and in addition the final duet) and for
Cornelia and Sesto too Handel composed six arias each and a joint duet. In each of these arias
the protagonists show different aspects of their personality resulting in the end in a character
portrayal resembling a kaleidoscope.
The team of the new production in Salzburg consider it to be helpful to take a certain distance,
and also the right degree of intelligent humour is necessary in order to stage Handel’s world
theatre. There is talk of war, the hunger for power, seduction and betrayal. A Roman ruler of the
world (Caesar) encounters Cleopatra, an Egyptian daughter of a Pharaoh, who disguises herself
as a servant, and immediately falls in love. In order to conquer him entirely, Cleopatra puts on a
veritable stage performance; at the same time she is engaged in a bitter dispute with her brother
Tolomeo about the throne. Tolomeo on the other hand falls head over heels in love with Cornelia,
the wife of Pompeo, whom he has just murdered. He thus becomes the rival of his general Achilla
who is also rather keen on the grieving widow. Cornelia on the other hand, who is in utter
despair, can only be prevented from committing suicide by her son Sesto who repeatedly swears
to take revenge.
If one bears in mind the ludicrous complications as prescribed in the libretto, a certain degree of
comedy is introduced of its own accord. It would be absurd to allow the audience to believe they
are looking at authentic figures from world history – Julius Caesar and Cleopatra in the year 48
B.C. On the other hand, the highly charged nature and excessiveness of the story make it very
modern. In the characters’ inherent tendency to exaggerate we are certainly able to recognise
ourselves: Tolomeo’s hatred, Sesto’s thirst for revenge, Cleopatra’s hunger for power, Caesar’s
naivety, Cornelia’s noble grief, Achilla’s subservience – this all only becomes credible if we
constantly remind ourselves that we are in the theatre.
On the other hand the piece portrays a universe characterised by wars, also between East and
West. Yet what we encounter is a fairy-tale Orient. If there are Egyptian echoes, they are quotes:
playing with reminiscences, typical for the Baroque. For Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier what
is of greatest importance is that the theatre never lays down arms: “A piece such as this, which
in many moments touches on the sublime, sung by the best singers in the world, can never be
presented in a kind of jewellery box, as it were in reverent rigidity in view of the sublime!” If the
performance intends to do justice to the richness of the piece, it has to be many things at the same
time: comic, sensuous, heart-rending, highly dramatic. The directors feel that perhaps this is an
attempt to be a kind of taking stock of what opera can be nowadays.
It is not least a matter of discovering the political aspects of the piece: a politician who is head
of a world power travels to a distant country to do away with his adversary. Since others have
already done that for him, he has nothing better to do than to fall in love with a chambermaid.
What a weak statesman! Does that not sound familiar to us Europeans? We are proud of our
civilisation, foster the art form of opera as 300 years ago – but nowadays Europe no longer
has much to say in the world. Uncertainty is spreading, indeed the fear of war. And this is the
atmosphere to be found in Handel’s opera which is rich in belligerent sounds, and even contains
a Sinfonia bellica. Moshe Leiser: “Each opera conveys to us a view of the world. It is our job to
make it possible to experience this view on stage.”
Konrad Kuhn
Translated by Elizabeth Mortimer