Sometimes an opera production imprints itself on a work with such sincerity that it becomes a touchstone for a generation of audiences. Jonathan Miller’s 1982 Mafia Rigoletto – New York gangsters and a jukebox-playing duke – wins with creativity and box office success. (Dog-eared or not, he will return to English National Opera in the autumn.) Glyndebourne’s 2005 staging of Handel Giulio Cesare (1724), directed by David McVicar, is another once-seen, never-forgotten hit film. Last revived in 2018 Giulio Cesare is back and flying – played by McVicar himself – with a first-class cast, with Handelian Laurence Cummings conducting a piece he knows inside and out, and the orchestra performing to perfection in the pit. One of Handel’s best-loved pieces, the score is brimming with witty star arias, from the joyful to the melancholy.
At first, the model scissors bobbing on the glittering, mechanical waves evoke mixed impressions: toy theatre, island nation, maritime power; imperial ambition, violence, war. Handel’s setting is the Roman-Egyptian war of 48–47 BC. The victorious Caesar sets sail for Alexandria, only to encounter the formidable duo of Ptome and Cleopatra, co-regent siblings and rivals. McVicar, along with the design team led by Robert Jones, have updated the scene to the British invasion of Egypt in 1882 in a stylish and eclectic way: red-coated soldiers, helmets, and the pervasive Victorian attitude toward the Ottoman Empire as a place of femininity. “Oriental” fantasy. Cleopatra and her entourage are dressed in sumptuous, bejeweled costumes (designed by Brigitte Reiffenstuel). Well-crafted physical details and Bollywood-referencing dancing are key to the action (choreography by Andrew George). This is a long but entertaining evening, especially when onstage violinist Kati Debretzeni enters a masterful stand-off with Caesar, beating out the vocal fireworks with dazzling trills and a big, full pizzicato.
In 2005, Sarah Connolly sang Caesar in the trouser role opposite Danielle de Niese, the sexy, flapper-dress-wearing, umbrella-twirling Cleopatra (the performance is available on the Glyndebourne video. Now the countertenors are in the spotlight: American Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, noble, sensitive, golden In his remarkable Glyndebourne debut as the deep-toned Caesar, American Ray Chenez (Nireno) plays his insidious nemesis Tolomeo, with American Ray Chenez (Nireno) making the countertenor stand out even more, including the wild butler Achilla. voice of Italian bass-baritone Luca Tittoto in his role.
The ending of Giulio Cesare is happy and short. Those long lasting outbursts of emotion that remain
English soprano Louise Alder almost steals the show as Cleopatra, vocally flawless, every ornament or coloratura beautifully placed. Two extraordinary mezzo-sopranos, Scottish Beth Taylor (mourning Cornelia) and Bulgarian Svetlina Stoyanova (son Sesto), shined alone and together in their heartfelt arias: grief expressed in a unique way in the music. The finale Julius CaesarHappy and short, thanks to the tactical juggling of historical facts. What remains are these long bursts of emotion.
Who can say where reality begins and ends? Così fan tutte (1790) was the last of three collaborations between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. A sublime operatic puzzle, it is not surprising that it has always been referred to by its Italian title, loosely meaning “all women are like this”. Not that anyone should take offence at the implied insult. This wife-swapping opera makes the point unflinchingly that all men are like this too. Love has no guarantees. Jan Philipp Gloger’s 2016 production, revived at the Royal Opera House by Oliver Platt, underlines this point. It also asks compelling questions about human intention and frailty, as expressed in Mozart’s soul-searching music. Gloger and his designer Ben Baur take the metatheatre to a tedious pitch: the action takes place on stage, offstage, down below, off the stage, under the stage. Dorabella (Samantha Hankey) and Fiordiligi (Golda Schultz) hang the clothes of their deceased lovers on wardrobe dummies. As the two couples face temptation, they are “on stage,” under a tree of knowledge, the monstrous serpent circling its trunk, birds of prey circling around.
The staging is dark and claustrophobic, but Mozart’s score breathes freely and airily, as if presenting life’s darkest problems with a cheerful smile. Conductor Alexander Soddy initially pushed the tempo, but then settled into a rapid fluidity, eliciting enthusiastic orchestral solos from horns and wind instruments. Schultz and Hankey worked as superb equals in this ensemble cast, with Daniel Behle returning as Ferrando and Andrè Schuen as Guglielmo, along with Gerald Finley returning as Don Alfonso and Jennifer France as Despina.
The Wagner’s Ring marathon, which featured four operas performed over seven days, concluded in Longborough last weekend. Siegfried And GötterdämmerungDirected by Anthony Negus and conducted by Amy Lane. The gods have met their end; Brünnhilde (Lee Bisset) gallops into the flames to reunite with the dead hero Siegfried (Bradley Daley); the gold, a metaphor for worldly power and evil, is returned to the Rhine. The complex symbolism of the work surfaces seamlessly through music and character. The entire cast, the chorus of vassals (with the Longborough Community Choir) and the 60-piece orchestra all contribute to the endeavor. In these last two operas, the supporting characters have their moments: Adrian Dwyer’s writhing Mime; Julian Close’s hideous, roaring Hagen; Benedict Nelson’s subtle and brilliantly incompetent Gunther; Laure Meloy’s naïve Gutrune) and Claire Barnett-Jones’ devoted Waltraute.
The point of this Cotswolds Ring cycle is not whether it lives up to the standards, budgets or stage panache of the world’s great opera houses. Sometimes it does (surprisingly often), sometimes it doesn’t. The scale of the effort, the commitment, the hard work despite the odds, the high musical standards and, above all, the response of the audience, many of whom will never have heard a Ring cycle anywhere else: these are the things that matter.
Star ratings (out of five)
Julius Caesar ★★★★
Così fan tutte ★★★
Siegfried/Gotterdämmerung ★★★★