Handel - Giulio Cesare
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Movie Reviews of Handel - Giulio Cesare
Movie Review: Ptolemy as a change of pace
Summary: 4 Stars
Regarding those noting the age of the singer playing Ptolemy.
The real Ptolemy was much younger than even the 18 one critic here refers to - 18 is Cleopatra's approx age at the time.
But so what. A DVD with Ptolemy played as he is in this production is worth the price of the disk even if you own another version.
If you find the general story of interest, get the DVD of the film made of George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra. It depicts Ptolemy as he more likely was. However, Shaw makes Cleopatra (played gorgeously by Vivian Leigh when she was about twice Cleopatra's age) more naive than she undoubtedly was, but then Shaw, like Handel was not pretending historical accuracy.
Another plus for the Danish production (relative to other productions)
The Cornelia - Sesto bits are well staged. In general, I preferred their staging to Glyndebourne's.
For those who care:
Sesto was Cornelia's stepson. He was born to Mucia, Pompey's 3rd wife (and the mother of all 3 of his children who lived past infancy).
Cornelia
"Pompey's fifth wife was Cornelia, daughter of Metellus Scipio and widow of Publius Crassus. She was young enough to have been married to his sons, but the marriage appears to have been a loving one, like the one with Julia [4th wife, Caesar's daughter, and thus also much younger than Pompey] . During the civil war, Cornelia stayed on Lesbos. Pompey joined her there and from there they went to Egypt where Pompey was killed." Source: Shelley P Haley. "The Five Wives of Pompey the Great". Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser, 32 (1): 49-59 (1985 Apr).
My giving the production only 4 stars is based in part on how Cleopatra was costumed.
In her first appearance, in white pants, she looks like an almost-overweight, middle-aged matron, her appearance as Lydia is ridiculous, and the baldness is absurd.
Movie Review: Scholl the best... it's worth it for him alone.
Summary: 4 Stars
I have seen several Cesare's on DVD and live... and this production is one of my favourites. For me it comes the closest to the Australian Opera DVD with Graham Pushee and Yvonne Kenny which is my favourite for many reasons that I won't go into here.
The cast for this DVD is excellent (with one exception). Andreas Scholl is fantastic, his acting good and his voice clear and strong, it is just a little hard to watch him sometimes... he distorts his face every now and again (as 90% of counter-tenors do)but this does not diminish from the out standing performance he puts in. His Cleopatra, Inger Dam-Jensen is excellent... a beautiful woman with an incredible voice and technique. The rest of the cast is good with the exception of Tolomeo played by Christopher Robson, who when lacking the range or power required for this role uses his 'chest voice' a little to often and also resorts to vocal hysterics... in saying this he acts very well and good on his for being brave enough to everything the director asks of him in this production. The other interesting casting is Michael Maniaci as Nireno... a true male soprano; his voice suits this repertoire very well and it will be interesting to hear him as the voice matures and he comes into his own as an artist. Nireno is a small role (he actually turned down a larger role in the USA to work on this project) but the inclusion of the normally cut aria really shows what Michael can do.
The Orchestra are excellent and the direction (both musical and dramatic) is fine. This is a 'modern' production, but one that works and doesn't try to be too modern or abstract.
Giulio Cesare is a wonderful opera and you will not find a better Cesare than Scholl... this is one of the best DVDs of this opera on the market and worth every penny of the Harmonia Mundi price tag.
Movie Review: Kill the Tolomeo
Summary: 3 Stars
This video is a bit maddening as there is some of the best Handelian singing I have ever heard and also some of the worst. Scholl, as Cesare, and the ladies singing Cornelia and Sesto are absolutely divine. Scholl's coloratura technique is nothing short of miraculous. The Cleopatra is also very good, but not quite as astounding as the other three. The Achilla was also quite enjoyable with a smooth voice and good fioratura. The Tolomeo, however, is truly one of the worst singers I have ever heard - the voice is tiny, unfocused, and terribly broken in the registers. It was not always so, for this same singer, Christopher Robson, can be heard on the much earlier videos of both Xerxes and Ariodante from the ENO, and his singing is quite decent in those videos, but his voice has deteriorated greatly between those earlier productions and this Cesare, and I was not able to sit through all of his arias but had to eventually fastforward through most of them. It was always an ugly voice, but he was able to control it and lead it in a very interesting way previously - here in this video, the voice is a ragged leftover. The slowest aria, which he sings to his harem was bordering on acceptable and I listened to that in it's entirety, but the others were putrid. The Nireno was not on the same par with the other professional singers, however was much better than the Tolomeo, and why on earth he didn't get the bigger role is beyond me.
I liked the modern setting. One other serious negative is the sound quality - the placement of the recording in the house seems not to be ideal. The orchestra sounded good but the singers sounded like they were in an echo chamber - it wasn't terrible, but could certainly be better.
If you are a Cesare-lover, get this one to add to your collection of other Cesare's, because there is some singing here not to be missed, however, if you are looking for just one, or a first Cesare, get the Glyndebourne one with Sarah Connolly in the title role.
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