It's the week beginning 10 Aug and I was seriously considering a post pointing all weary iso-viewers to Gilbert and Sullivan opera online for a good laugh. Your average week of free livestreaming operas offers too little pure fun. But Glyndebourne has posted its next offering, and it's LOL. After their brilliant Stravinsky Rake, comes their 2010 production of Handel's wonderful witty and superbly tuneful account of Caesar in Egypt.
Available here on YouTube through Sunday 16th. (Warning - it's long! 4 hours 55 minutes. But available all week; the joys of watching at home include watching in instalments!)
Not another Handel opera about vicious politics and betrayal? As seen last week in Agrippina, he matched wicked wit to his glorious music. But the combination was never better than in Giulio Cesare, his most successful opera then (1724 ) and now. It was launched as opera seria but is rarely played seriously. Go to our 2017 website for our coverage of the opera, links to synopsis, libretto etc. and the crazy Salzburg production we watched then.
Glyndebourne’s offering to the isolated world this week is their famous and irreverent David McVicar production from 2005. NYTimes thought it brought a new life to the opera to set it in English empire. It spoofs that setting in toe tapping, splendidly choreographed, musical joy. This production travelled to the Met in 2013, where Cleopatra was played by Natalie Dessay. (It hasn't featured on livestreaming, sadly, yet, but a new production, with Jestyn Davies as Caesar, is still scheduled for March 2021..maybe.)
Handel's Cleopatra is one of the most strongly and sympathetically drawn characterizations in opera. In eight arias, she changes from imperious queen to cheating flirt and then to blossoming maturity. Imprisoned by Tolomeo, she grows in strength in magnificent arias, culminating in the famous "Piangerò." (Do you have a spare 40 minutes in isolation? Listen to a masterclass from Joyce DiDonato coaching a young student to sing Cleopatra's complex grief.)
This was Glyndebourne debut for Danielle de Niese, who of course is Cleopatra, mercurial, witty, and revelling in the music. Listen here to the famous aria in which the queen, disguised, seduces Cesar, 'V’adoro, pupille'. (If you think the McVicar production outrageous, check out Cecilia Bartoli singing this aria as a porn dream to Andreas Scholl's Caesar.) Here's Natalie Dessay in a French production.) And here is Danielle's Cleopatra, defiant ‘Da tempeste il legno infranto’ leading her troops to battle.
Cleopatra dominates every production of this opera, but she's surrounded by historical characters splendidly drawn in music.
Caesar is dignified, smart, heroic and vulnerable - and variously played by a countertenor or a mezzo today, due to shortage of castrati. Sarah Connolly (mezzo) plays Cesare in Glyndebourne (she tweeted this week that she had been told in a competition she would never play that part.)
Here is Connolly's 'Quel torrente, che cade dal monte' facing martial disaster. (Janet Baker was the first mezzo, I think, to make this part hers. Hear her here. Dame Sarah's performance is impressive – she manages the irony and pageantry of war and the faux imperial masculinity superbly.
Almost certainly you’ve seen Handel’s Caesar played by a countertenor. Graeme Pushee revelled in it. (I confess the OA production with Pushee was the first opera production I saw twice, and responsible for my adoration of this opera.) The words? 'The wise hunter seeking prey goes silently and stealthily. And he who intends evil will not wish to show the deceit in his heart.' Make your casting decision by comparing performances of this aria: here's the wonderful countertenor David Daniels in the Met's 2012 version of the McVicar production. Here, Connoly's Caesar elegantly dodges a poison attack from the ghastly Tolemeo, the sole countertenor in this production, Christophe Dumaux. He played Tolomeo again for the Met in 2012 - here's his “Belle dee di questo core”.
William Christie conducts. It’s up for free on YouTube here, from Monday 10th to late Sunday 16 August.
Impossible story? It’s roughly around the history of the Roman Civil War – never say impossible. . . 'He who intends evil will not wish to show the deceit in his heart'.
Meanwhile, at the Met
There’s history in the Met’s week – Pavarotti in a 1981 Rigoletto and at the end of the week, a lineup of the greats for the production of Luisa Miller from 1979. Here is the schedule, with our dates. Go to their website. Click to Nightly Opera Stream. Screenings go all the day listed and through to early next morning.
Monday, August 10 it's Simon Keenlyside in Mozart’s Don Giovanni
returning - after a long absence on health grounds - to big 'actor' roles, in 2016, There were
good reviews for Keenlyside's return after throat surgery. He's a fine actor as well as a great baritone. And the live in HD production was lit by a hilarious speech he gave in the 'interview' the Met requires in intervals, entirely frustrating the usual trivial questions! Read about it in this review.
Tuesday, August 11 Puccini’s Manon Lescaut Starring Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, and Dwayne Croft, conducted by James Levine. From February 16, 2008.
Wednesday, August 12 Bizet’s Carmen Starring Aleksandra Kurzak, Clémentine Margaine, Roberto Alagna, and Alexander Vinogradov, conducted by Louis Langrée. From February 2, 2019.
Thursday, August 13
Verdi’s Rigoletto Starring Christiane Eda-Pierre, Isola Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Louis Quilico, and Ara Berberian, conducted by James Levine. From December 15, 1981. Pavarotti’s Duke does a great job of the singing but not of the sleeze. Here’s the flyer and his 'La donna e mobile’ Review here.
Friday, August 14 Puccini’s Turandot Starring Nina Stemme, Anita Hartig, Marco Berti, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk, conducted by Paolo Carignani. From January 30, 2016. (Illustrated above)
On the opera and the sopranos who tackled it, go to our website . This is the Met’s Franco Zeffirelli production, now with Nina Stemme singing the ice princess. She is widely regarded as the leading Wagner soprano, but reviews of this Puccini performance were less enthusiastic but agreed she made the princess plausible - review here ... and here .
Saturday, August 15 Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde Starring Deborah Voigt, Michelle DeYoung, Robert Dean Smith, and Matti Salminen, conducted by James Levine. From March 22, 2008. We take the Live in HD productions for granted, especially now: here’s an interesting reflection from that time and this reviewer comments on the experimental staging.
Sunday, August 16 Puccini’s La Bohème Starring Kristine Opolais, Susanna Phillips, Vittorio Grigolo, Massimo Cavalletti. From April 5, 2014.
Monday, August 17 Verdi’s Luisa Miller Starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, and James Morris, conducted by James Levine. From January 20, 1979. The cast of classic greats – take time to listen to them talking about ways of working together. There’s an discussion here, of Verdi’s arrival at this early opera, and this production.
Lyn - updated 10 Aug.