November 6, 9, 12 & 14, 2021
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
Gary Thor Wedow, conductor; Tomer Zvulun, stage director. Cast: Daryl Freedman (Giulio Cesare), Jasmine Habersham (Cleopatra); Megan Marino (Sesto Pompeo); Renee Tatum (Cornelia); Daniel Moody (Tolomeo);
David Crawford (Achilla); William Meinert (Curio); Elizabeth Sarian (Nireno). Creative: Alexander Lisyansky, set designer; Mattie Ullrich, costume designer; Erin Teachman, projections designer; Robert Wierzel, lighting designer; Donald Byrd, choreographer.
George Frideric HANDEL: Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare in Egitto)
Mark Gresham | 10 NOV 2021
Over its nearly 42-year performance history, The Atlanta Opera had never performed a Baroque opera. That is, until this past Saturday when it opened its mainstage production of Handel’s Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.
Before this production, the oldest opera mounted by the company was Gluck’s Orfeo in 2009. Although Handel’s Orlando had been scheduled for May 2007, that production got canceled due to budget problems and never came to pass. All of that means the company is treading new ground.
Baroque opera seria like Julius Caesar is absolutely the opposite of verismo, which seeks to portray the world with greater realism. It presents a real creative challenge for an artistic team. When staging an opera by Puccini or Verdi, the story is all there in the score and libretto. Baroque operas are much more abstract and aria-driven, more than driven by drama. Baroque arias often involve a small number of words, with considerable repetition, emphasizing vocal display.
Reaching 21st-century audiences accustomed to more drama-driven opera requires an approach that demands the directors, designers, choreographers, and singers become imaginative, dedicated storytellers. Since it’s not all in the text and music, one has to create an environment around it that feels specific and immediate.
In that, The Atlanta Opera succeeds.
Handel’s original 1724 version involves three and a half hours of music in three acts, not counting intermissions. That clearly would not work for a 21st-century audience in our current post-COVID environment. The first creative task then was to reduce the overall runtime.
Conductor Gary Thor Wedow and stage director Tomer Zvulun (the company’s artistic and executive director) worked very closely to make new cuts, trimming the music down to two hours and 10 minutes total in two acts, of eight and ten scenes, respectively. The goal was to preserve the story’s structure and retain a good variety of arias for the principal singers. The edit was effective and made the evening flow smoothly, especially in Act II. Cuts with Handel are common; the composer himself often made cuts and changes in revivals produced during his lifetime.
Portrait of George Frideric Handel (attributed to Balthasar_Denner, ca._1726 – 1728, public domain)
The libretto of Nicola Francesco Haym is historical fiction, embellishing the elements of love and intrigues of power for his 18th-century audiences as would a modern Hollywood movie. Alexander Lisiyansky’s set and Erin Teachman’s projections do not attempt any historical purity but take the opera visually “out of time” while abstractly nodding at Ptolemaic Egypt; it could have just as easily been a post-Apocalyptic era in the future.
A giant pyramid-shaped “revolve” (rotating platform), attached to a giant axle and wheel, implies the Egyptian setting; but also abstracts a kind of stone mill used in the Hellenic era—and perhaps, one might venture, represent the grinding of forces between Ptolemaic and Roman cultures in the story. When turned in one direction, the pyramid presents a broad public staircase to the audience (see photo below). Rotated in another direction, an enclosure, like a room. The revolve excellent device for making some rapid scene changes.
The pyramid revolve: Daryl Freedman as Cesare and Jasmine Habersham as Cleopatra ascend the steps. (credit: Ken Howard.)
Robert Wierzel’s lighting design, especially moving spots in early scenes, implied a 21st-century lean to the production’s timelessness. Donald Byrd’s choreography lent some much-needed stylized human movement to what could have too easily been a stand-there-and-sing opera in lesser creative hands. The most significant visual implication of the story’s location and three cultures (Ptolemaic, Egyptian, and Roman) was the costuming by Mattie Ullrich. The use of masculine elements in costumes for the two mezzo trouser roles (Cesare and Sesto) did not attempt to hide that women were playing male characters.
Those two roles, originally written for male castrati, were ably sung by mezzos Daryl Freedman (in the title role of Giulio Cesare) and Megan Marino (as Sesto Pompeo).
Center: Megan Marino as Sesto Pompeo. (credit Ken Howard)
Freedman portrays a powerful and persuasive Cesare across from Jasmine Habersham as Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, with whom he falls in love while she is in disguise as a maiden. Her intent in Act I is to turn Cesare against her co-regent brother, Tolomeo (Daniel Moody), to gain the Egyptian throne for herself alone.
Jasmine Habersham as Cleopatra. (credit: Felipe Barral)
Tolomeo is the antagonist. As Cleopatra’s younger brother, he likewise wants the throne of Egypt for himself. He triggers animosity by ordering the murder of Pompeo, whom Cesare has been pursuing. Tolomeo’s general, Aciilla (David Crawford), presents Pompeo’s head as a gift to Cesare, who is horrified and enraged. So are Sesto Pompeo (Marino) and his stepmother Cornelia (Renée Tatum), who meet with Cesare in the hope of a peace settlement. Pompeo’s death dashes that, and vengeance is in the air. Sesto sings ”Svegliatevi nel core, furie d’un alma offesa, a far d’un traditor aspera vendetta” (”Wake up in your heart, fury of a sober offense, to make a traitor bitter revenge!”)
By the end of Act I, Cleopatra, still disguised as the maiden Lydia, seduces Cesare and closes the Act with “V’adoro, pupille, saette d’Amore” (“I adore you, eyes, thunderbolts of love”).
Renée Tatum as Cornelia (credit: Ken Howard)
The widowed Cornelia has already resisted the advances of Achille in Act I, and when. As Act II opens, she sings “Deh, piangete, oh mesti lumi” (“Oh, weep, oh sad eyes”), then demonstrates her resilience by refusing Tolomeo. Sesto sings of vengeance: “L’angue offeso mai riposa se il veleno pria non spende dentro sangue all’ offensor” (“The offended blood [serpent] will not rest until its venom flows in the blood of the offender”). Cornelia and Sesto have a plan to assassinate Tolomeo.
Cesare learns of Cleopatra’s true identity early in Acr II when word comes that Tolomeo’s forces plan to attack Cesare’s army. But Cesare is prepared for battle and sings,” Al lampo dell’armi quest’alma guerriera vendetta farà” (“At the flash of arms, this warrior will take revenge”) and departs. Habersham gives her most moving performance when she expresses her fear that Cesare is dead: “Piangerò la sorte mia, si crudele” (“I will cry for my fate, so cruel”).
Sesto restores family honor by successfully killing Tolomeo. Cesare, who did not die in battle, returns to welcome Sesto and Cornelia as friends, and he and Cleopatra declare their love for each other. In typical Baroque fashion, the entire cast (including recently deceased characters) celebrates “love conquers all” and the triumph of good over evil in the finale chorus: “Ritorni omai nel nostro core la bella gioja el il piacer” (“Return now in our hearts the beautiful joy and pleasure”). After all, we must have a happy ending. Certainly Baroque audiences did. It was part of the genre.
Conductor Gary Thor Wedow led the Atlanta Opera Orchestra in a both knowledgeable and pragmatic underscoring of the singing and drama.
The six principal singers with arias were well balanced as an ensemble, even though they had different quantities of arias and duets: seven for Cesare, six for Cleopatra, three each for Cornelia and Sesto plus their duet in Act I, three for Tolomeo. And although only one made the libretto cuts for Achilla the production preserved his dramatic arc and his entire final death scene. Capable performances also came in supporting roles by William Meinert as Curio and Elizabeth Sarian as Nireno. ■
Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.
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