The subject of the opera is clear to all from the very first words uttered by the eponymous hero of Händel’s most spectacular opera: »Cesare came, he saw and he conquered,« proclaims the hero to the newly vanquished Egyptians, who have just greeted him with dutiful clamour. GIULIO CESARE is not a complex tale where it’s hard to keep track of who loves whom. This is the straight story as we know it from history textbooks, the cinema or »Asterix in Egypt«.

That »veni, vidi, vici« hints at an allegiance to facts, and all the main protagonists presented by Händel and his librettist Nicola Haym are indeed historical personages. Unlike other operas by Händel - TOLOMEO, FLAVIO and RADAMISTO - this work’s plot is familiar to us, so we can sit back and compare Händel’s take on the love story between Roman commander and Egyptian Pharaoh with the images we carry in our heads.

GIULIO CESARE is Händel’s best loved opera and a great primer for baroque opera in general. The work is a flamboyant fusion of characteristics acquired by Händel in his formative years: the effusiveness of German baroque opera nurtured at Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt and the heroic profundity of Italian opera. Add to this the expectations of London’s opera scene, where Italian works were considered the preserve of the upper classes, who had a weakness for star performers and catchy arias but less interest in long-winded recitatives in a language that they hardly understood.

In no other work does Händel give freer rein to his theatricality, with GIULIO CESARE a riot of orchestral diversity spanning an invisible stage orchestra, striking solo pieces and unusual instruments deployed for special effect. In no other opera is he so presumptive of mood-swing acceptance on the part of the audience. As early as the first scene Händel and Haym are doing something radical – depicting the newly arrived Cesare being presented with the severed head of his rival, Pompeo, a gesture that kills the festive atmosphere. So recently celebrated, the victor is abruptly confronted with the fate that awaits the vanquished.

Sesto is plagued by memories of the murder of his father, Pompeo. But in his quest for vengeance the teenager is on his own © Tristram Kenton

 

This is a key moment, when two parallel narratives emerge, with the storyline cutting back and forth between them, as in a film: the love story of Cesare and Cleopatra on the one hand and the tale of the struggle for survival of Pompeo’s widow and her son Sesto. And while the flirting between Roman and Egyptian morphs into true love in the course of the opera, Cornelia and Sesto learn what it is to be at the mercy of the mighty.

GIULIO CESARE is a story of the two faces of power, the dark and the light – grippingly and convincingly portrayed whenever the two spheres approach each other. The tragedy is also laced with humour, for example when Sesto delivers vengeful arias in fiery coloratura that are belied by his limited powers as a teenager.

Yet the powerful protagonists, too, are flung into perilous situations where their own fates hang in the balance. Händel and Haym lead their heroes to the lip of the abyss, only to have victory lurch their way, all the more sparkling and welcome, and allowing them scope to acquire a tragic dimension. Cleopatra’s aria in which she laments the apparent death of Cesare and her fate along with it not only marks the emotional gravitation point of the opera; it also shows the breathtaking maturation process that this woman goes through in the course of her five arias.

And the story’s verisimilitude also consists in the way that, unlike most other baroque operas, not all the protagonists at the end of GIULIO CESARE bury their differences and unite in a grand choral finale. In this work the victors celebrate with all the pomp that baroque opera can muster. And in a throw-back to the opening scene, the defeated are perished and gone. »Vae victis«, Cesare might well have said: Woe to the vanquished.