When Häendel premiered “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” 300 years ago – on February 20 at the King's Theater in London – he was already the most acclaimed of the musical masters of that time and place, but this opera marked his definitive consecration.
Häendel had arrived in the kingdom during the previous decade to contribute to the development of Italian opera and one of the milestones was the founding of the Royal Academy of Music.
If we consider his works and the repercussions of him, he had all the characteristics of a pop star.
The success of “Giulio Cesar” was immediate, Häendel directed it almost 40 times and it was immediately performed in Hamburg and Paris.
“Giulio Cesar in Egitto” seemed to become extinct a century later from classical music programming, but it resurfaced in the mid-20th century and to this day is the most performed opera by Georg Friedrich Händel.
In our theaters, its appearance was limited: a production at the Teatro Colón more than half a century ago (1968) directed by Karl Richter – whom European critics had not treated well – and another more innovative one by Pablo Maritano seven years ago , where it featured a top international Argentine countertenor, Franco Fagioli, in the role of Julio César.
Cleopatra and Evita
Personification of Evita by soprano Paula Almenares.
Audacious La Plata production of Handel's opera, from Egypt to Argentina in the 1950s
Another of the bold programmings at the Teatro Argentino in La Plata, in 2010, presented by Gustavo Tambassio, who transferred the plot of Giulio Cesar to Argentina in the 1950s, turning Cleopatra… into Evita.
Our great critic Federico Monjeau highlighted that, with this performance,
“the Argentino de La Plata fills a somewhat inexplicable gap: it is the first time in its 120 years of history that this Theater produces a baroque opera.
But in this case it is not a historical reconstruction;
The bet of the Argentine régisseur Gustavo Tambascio is bolder and, without a doubt, more genuinely baroque: he does not seek to reestablish a verisimilitude (with all the verisimilitude that things can be in the world of opera), but rather to activate the system of affects and “passions of the baroque.”
Later, Pablo Maritano, when presenting it at the Colón, defined this opera as
“political.
The exotic elements and hows set the tone.
But even so, there is a veiled satire on absolutism, consolidated at that time in Europe.
But the work analyzes the power-desire binomial as an indivisible identity.
Generally, both go through each situation like an obsession.
Paraphrasing Oscar Wilde, we remember his phrase: “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex.
Sex is about power
.”
A real hit
Never has an opera by Handel achieved such great and immediate success.
The theme was one of its central elements, since it was a well-known story and made it easy for viewers to follow, unlike other complicated plots of the time.
The libretto was by a character called Nicola Francesco Haym, an Italian who was divided between his musical hobbies (he was a cellist), his role as Häendel's librettist (he worked on twenty texts for the maestro) and businessman (Häendel was also one). .
Haym adapted librettos from the previous century, which only had in common the location of the plot in Julius Caesar's campaign in Egypt in 48 BC, in pursuit of Pompey, his rival in the civil war of ancient Rome.
Even though they cite Plutarch's “Lives” as the original text, all the events described in the opera are fictitious.
Experts highlight the artistic value of this opera, for which Häendel created magical music for these characters and extensive orchestration.
Häendel poured all his resources into the production and featured the most famous singers of his time at the premiere: the castrati Sensino in the role of Julius Caesar and Francesca Cuzzoni as Cleopatra.
But the role of the true “femme fatal” was not for the queen but for Cornelia, Pompey's widow.
The string of arias, the emotional role, the dramatic portraits that Häendel assigned to each character - a heroic Julius Caesar in battle, a romantic at Court -, the intrigues and jealousies, vice and betrayal, and his style of breaking the rigidity and even the monotony of the opera's early days, made this work one of the composer's most inspired moments.