David McVicar’s manufacturing of Handel’s Giulio Cesare returns to Glyndebourne with a terrific younger forged

This playfulness very a lot centres on the character of Cleopatra. Till we get to ‘Se pieta’, the position is relentlessly choreographed, even ‘V’adoro, pupille’. Louise Alder entered into issues with a will, a way of playful enjoyment radiating from her with by no means a touch of sending the position up. This Cleopatra was positively a playful minx, however Alder’s lyric soprano voice is larger and richer than a mere soubrette and even within the extra bravura arias there was a richness and sense of luxurious to her singing that hinted on the extra critical issues to come back. Substantial roles like Cleopatra in Baroque opera may be one thing of a problem, with the best way every aria explores only one or two emotional colors; right here, Alder ensured that all the pieces was joined up so we believed in her emotional improvement. Her excellent account of ‘Se pieta’ was shifting and plausible while ‘Piangerò’ was beautifully intense, but ‘Da tempeste’ returned us to the dancing playfulness. All in all, an actual triumph.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Cameron Shahbazi, Louise Alder – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen made a bodily imposing Giulio Cesare, wanting very a lot the conqueror (thought it was unlucky that his Act One costume of nice coat and breast plate seemed extra cumbersome than imposing), with a voice to match. There was by no means a touch that the position lies fairly low, he produced a stunning even sound from prime to backside. His bravura moments had been vividly completed with some admirably vibrant passagework, but within the critical moments similar to ‘Alma del gran Pompeo’, Nussbaum Cohen was equally intense within the seriousness. The outcome was a richly layered portrait of a posh hero. His looking aria, ‘Va tacito e nascosto’ with its terrific horns was positively a spotlight, while the aria on the finish of Act Two when he goes off to battle, ‘Al lampo dell’armi’ was an actual tour de power, regardless of McVicar’s need to ship up the G&S factor of an aria spending 5 minutes having the character vigorously leaving. The entire of the Act Three scene the place he reappeared from the ocean, with its imaginatively mixture of arioso, recitative and aria, with finely completed and saved the main focus actually on the character.

Svetlina Stoyanova made an admirably youthful Sesto, each in appears to be like and within the pretty flexibility and fluidity to her voice. This Sesto was touching in his moments of making an attempt to metal himself to be the person his father was in addition to having pretty parts of self-doubt. Stoyanova was splendidly vibrant within the bravura arias, of which Sesto has his justifiable share, but she made the quieter ones actually intimate. The outcome was one other advanced, multi-layered efficiency that created an interesting character, one the place gender nearly grew to become irrelevant. As Sesto’s mom, Cornelia, Beth Taylor was equally youthful. No dour matron, she was suitably demure and ladylike, but additionally vigorous and extremely lively. Passionate in her intense response to Cameron Shahbazi’s Tolomeo, this was a vibrant and extremely lively portrait of a personality who can typically appear a bit passive. But when the chips had been down, Taylor was profoundly shifting and her Act One duet with Stoyanova’s Sesto was positively a musical spotlight.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Beth Taylor, Svetlina Stoyanova – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Cameron Shahbazi was a vividly portrayed Tolomeo, extremely colored but not too camp, he was believably a women’ man although Shahbazi gave this Tolomeo a pleasant theatricality which emphasised the character’s sheer sliminess and nasty streak. Shahbazi was clearly have a whale of a time, there was a enjoyable factor right here too, this Tolomeo loved being nasty. Shahbazi sang the position finely too, there was quite a bit to take pleasure in musically . As his basic, Luca Tittoto introduced vigour and dramatic credibility to Achilla’s two arias, making them really feel excess of simply vital make-weights. 

On this manufacturing, Cleopatra’s servant Nireno is performed in a scene-stealing comedian means and Ray Chenez actually went to city. Bodily adroit, Chenez made Nireno’s antics visually expressive even when they felt, to me, considerably excessive and a tad overdone. He was interesting in Nireno’s aria, one other a type of that may simply really feel like a make-weight. Within the small position of Curio (who by no means will get an aria, whichever model of the opera you carry out), Thomas Chenhall (from the refrain) gave sturdy help and positively rocked that kilt!

In contrast to Glyndebourne’s 2022 manufacturing of Alcina, which appeared to banish the refrain solely, this one used it to the complete although the vast majority of singers had been off-stage. However there was nonetheless loads of color and motion from the boys of the refrain, as Cesare’s troopers, and a bunch of six dancers who doubled as servants (with stylised actions that actually harked again to Nicholas Hytner’s iconic Serse for ENO in 1985) in addition to dancing attendants for Cleopatra and Tolomeo.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Luca Tittoto, Cameron Shahbazi – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Within the pit, Laurence Cummings saved a agency hand on proceedings, permitting the drama to movement swiftly but with out seeming rushed. He allowed time for the soloists, together with Cesare’s barely overdone duet with the solo violin in the beginning of Act Two, but the opera flowed too in order that we by no means felt we spent too lengthy dwelling on particulars. There was a dramatic thrust right here too. And he inspired a wealthy vibrant sound from the orchestra which verged on the lavish at instances. There was nothing austere about these interval manners, and it made one realise that at its top, Handel’s opera firm fielded an admirably massive orchestra.

Musically and dramatically this was a vivid night within the theatre. So absorbing had been the performances that you just by no means felt the opera’s size, we had been handled to richly layered drama. I’ve to confess that this isn’t my splendid manufacturing of Giulio Cesare and the opera’s tendency to playfulness was, at instances, a bit an excessive amount of for me, however I can not deny that the entire was a richly rewarding night at a Handel opera.