Giulio Cesare by Georg Frideric Handel
This revival of the 2005 Festival production has now finished
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Listen to the podcast featuring interviews with Sarah Connolly (Caesar), Danielle de Niese (Cleopatra) and conductor Laurence Cummings about this revival production.
Musically, visually, dramatically, this was vintage stuff.
Evening Standard
The triumphant sensation of the 2005 Festival, David McVicar’s acclaimed production of Handel’s grandest opera returns again, by popular demand, to mark Glyndebourne’s contribution to the composer’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
Drawing inspiration equally from the British Raj and Bollywood, McVicar’s flamboyantly slick and sexy song-and-dance staging veers expertly between black comedy and heartbreaking tragedy as Handel’s sumptuous score pours out some of his most exquisitely fashioned, emotionally affecting and sheerly exciting arias.
A powerful cast is led by the two stars of the original staging mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly as the imperious Roman general and soprano Danielle de Niese as the irrepressibly coquettish Cleopatra, ever ready to render unto Cesare whatever it takes to gain control of her kingdom.
The edition by Winton Dean and Sarah Fuller is performed by arrangement with Oxford University Press.
Performance schedule
Key
* = Pre-performance talk available in the in the Ebert Room.
Creative team
Conductor Laurence Cummings
Director David Mcvicar
Set Designer Robert Jones
Costume Designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Lighting Designer Paule Constable
Movement Director Andrew George
Chorus Master Thomas Blunt
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Glyndebourne Chorus
Cast includes
Giulio Cesare Sarah Connolly
Cornelia Patricia Bardon
Sesto Stéphanie D’oustrac
Cleopatra Danielle de Niese
Tolomeo Christophe Dumaux
Achilla Guido Loconsolo
Nireno Rachid Ben Abdeslam
Pre-performance talks
Sunday 7 June
Sunday 28 June
Buy the DVD
The award-winning DVD of Glyndebourne’s 2005 Festival production of Giulio Cesare is available from the Glyndebourne shop