The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera (4 page)

 Plot

The earth is barren in the aftermath of war.
Jupiter descends to earth to restore fertility, but his attention is immediately caught by Calisto, a high-minded nymph who attends adoringly on the chaste Diana.
She rebuffs his coarse advances.
Mercury cunningly suggests that in order to endear himself to Calisto, Jupiter should transform himself into the semblance of Diana.
The trick seems to work.
When Calisto later mistakes the real Diana for Jupiter-Diana and attempts to renew the love-play, the real Diana is appalled at her lesbian indecency.
The situation is further complicated by the real Diana’s secret passion for the shepherd Endimion, Pan’s lust for the real Diana and the finger-wagging of a withered old killjoy nymph, Linfea.

Juno comes down to earth in search of her erring husband Jupiter.
What she hears from the innocent Calisto confirms her worst suspicions.
Meanwhile, Endimion mistakes the real Diana for Jupiter-Diana and is seized and tortured by the henchmen of the jealous Pan.
Eventually the complications unravel: Linfea is humiliated, Diana and Endimion are united, and Juno arranges for Calisto to be transformed into a little bear.
Finally, Jupiter is restored to his original shape.
He commands that Calisto be elevated to the heavens in the form of the night-star Ursa Minor (the little bear).

What to listen for

A delightful farcical fantasy which may never plumb the emotional depths reached by Monteverdi, but which is rich in melodic charm and grace.
The score is distinguished by the separation of passages of recitative from aria – the latter marked by opportunities for melismatic flourishes which can be added according to the abilities and whim of the singer, as well as the limitation of the roles of chorus and orchestra.
All these portend the more static and elaborate form of
opera
seria
which would develop by the end of the seventeenth century.

In performance

The first modern revival took place in 1970 at Glyndebourne, where Peter Hall produced a memorable pseudo-baroque staging, on a steeply raked and long-receding platform with
trompe
l’oeil
changes of scene.
The scholar-conductor Raymond Leppard shamelessly assembled his own edition of the opera, interpolating passages from other works by Cavalli and creating inauthentically sumptuous orchestral textures.
Later productions have taken a rather more rigorous line.

Recording

CD: Janet Baker (Jove/Diana); Raymond Leppard (cond.).
Decca 436 216 2

George Frideric Handel

(1685–1759)

Giulio
Cesare
in
Egitto
(
Julius
Caesar
in
Egyp
t)

Three acts. First performed London, 1724.

Libretto by Nicola Haym

Highly successful throughout Europe during Handel’s lifetime, the composer revised the score several times, adding arias tailored to the capacity of specific singers.
The action is grounded in Julius Caesar’s historically documented visit to Egypt in 48
BC
, although the intrigues of the plot are pure fiction.

Plot

Cesare has defeated his rival Pompeo and arrives in Egypt, demanding homage.
In an attempt to ingratiate himself with Cesare, Tolomeo (Ptolemy), King of Egypt, kills Pompeo.
But Cesare is appalled by his treachery.
Pompeo’s widow Cornelia rejects both Roman and Egyptian suitors, and Sesto, son of Pompeo and Cornelia, vows vengeance on Tolomeo.

Tolomeo and his beautiful sister Cleopatra scheme against each other.
Cleopatra disguises herself as ‘Lidia’ and uses her feminine wiles to enlist Cesare’s support.
Cornelia and Sesto are arrested after a foiled attempt on Tolomeo’s life, but Sesto escapes from prison.

Tolomeo falsely believes himself to have triumphed over Cesare in battle.
He attempts to force his attentions on Cornelia, but Sesto surprises him in the act and kills him.
Cesare and Cleopatra are united.
Under Cesare’s guidance, Egypt is promised peace and liberty.

What to listen for

Among the richest and most lavishly orchestrated of Handel’s operas,
Giulio
Cesare
is also very long.
Whichever of the various surviving versions of the score is used, modern staged
performances are almost always cut to some degree – in deference to both the audience’s and the singers’ endurance.
Whether to excise parts of arias, entire arias or entire characters is a knotty question.

Outstanding features of Act I include Cesare’s ‘Va tacito’, with its horn accompaniment suggesting that Cesare is closing in like a huntsman on Tolomeo, and Sesto’s intense ‘Cara speme’.
In the opening scene of Act II, Cleopatra attempts to seduce Cesare with the sensuous ‘V’adoro pupille’; as the act closes, she vows in ‘Si pietà di me non senti’ to die if Cesare is killed in battle.
Act III finds her lamenting in ‘Piangerò la sorte mia’ and rejoicing in the brilliant ‘Da tempeste il legno infranto’.
Cesare expresses his grief at the temporary loss of Cleopatra in the heart-rending ‘Aure, deh, per pietà’.

A ‘double’ orchestra is used in the scene at the beginning of Act II.
Nine instruments on stage assist Cleopatra in her seduction of Cesare, combining and contrasting with the orchestra in the pit.

In performance

The most frequently performed and popular of Handel’s Italian operas, first revived in modern times in 1922.
At first, the roles originally ascribed to castrati – Giulio Cesare, Nireno and Tolomeo – were transposed to suit baritones and basses; over the last thirty years or so, it has been considered important to preserve at least approximately Handel’s own vocal pitches, and counter-tenors or, in the case of Cesare, mezzo-sopranos have taken them over.
Cleopatra has provided a brilliant showcase for the coloratura virtuosity of sopranos such as Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills and Kathleen Battle, while Janet Baker, Ann Murray and Anne-Sofie von Otter are among the mezzo-sopranos to have made swaggering and convincing Cesares.
The role of Sesto was originally written for a mezzo-soprano, though Handel later rewrote it for a tenor.
Today, it is customarily taken by a mezzo-soprano, unless an outstanding counter-tenor like David Daniels is available.
Incidentally, some of the more purist
‘authentic’ performances are tuned by the conductor to Handel’s original pitch, a good semitone lower than modern standard orchestral pitch.
This makes life a lot easier for the singers.

A controversial 1985 production by the American director Peter Sellars updated the scenario to show Cesare as an American president visiting a Hilton hotel in some modern terrorist-infested Middle East capital and indulging in some very dirty power-games.
This bold and often amusing production emphasized the sly satire in the libretto and prompted several further burlesque updatings.
Zaniest of all was probably Richard Jones’s 1994 production in Munich, dominated by a crumbling model of a Tyrannosaurus rex and a bald Cesare in kilt and Doc Martens boots.

Recordings