Handel - Giulio Cesare Streaming
Lundi, août 16th, 2010 |
Handel - Giulio Cesare Streaming.
Movie Title: Handel - Giulio Cesare Handel - Giulio Cesare is available for streaming or downloading. |
First performed 20 February 1724 and frequently revived thereafter during Handel’s lifetime, Giulio Cesare, like all of his operas, fell into obscurity for 2 centuries. Supposedly, they were dreary to a recent audience and unperformable by original performers. Modern scholarship proved the absurdity of this inaccurate viewpoint. Handel’s operas are joining his oratorios in the repertory with Cesare probably most performed along with Serse.
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Cleopatra made a star of Beverly Sills. I contemplate it may do the same for the uncommonly exquisite Danielle de Niese whose fine appearance and rich soprano acquire the Glyndebourne stage with that ineffable quality called ’starpower’. Glyndebourne and Opus Arte must agree because they showcase Ms. de Niece in a 30 runt documentary on disc 1 called ‘Danielle de Niece and the Glyndebourne experience’! In it, sharp to the under 30 audience is explicitly discussed. Every aspect of this staging of Cesare is created with that mission in mind. Another documentary film included in the location is ‘Entertainment is not a dirty word’. If you can deal with all this, you will savor this 3 disc DVD immensely. I found this performance amusing, captivating, inventive, a microscopic glitzy (in a first-rate scheme) and well sung. On the negative side, I found it slightly weaker dramatically but with some challenging tragic singing from Angelika Kirschlager as Sesto and Patricia Bardon as Sesto’s mother Cornelia. Sarah Connolly makes a ravishing Cesare. Christopher Maltman is a standout Achilla. The cast is quite first-rate and they appear to be enjoying themselves. In a 4 hour opera that is probably pleasant.
William Christie is a great conductor of Baroque opera. He has been joining his talents to productions that emphasize a more original sensibilty. Some purists wonder where the actual heart of Baroque opera is when singers cavort onstage in slinky Flapper dresses and designer sunglasses. I can live with it if the music is well performed: as it is here by the gracious Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. But even open-minded laissez-faire opera fans (like me) would like to gape a proper Baroque opera performed as written one day. This is a vastly exciting production. The costumes are elegant. The stagecraft and sets are brilliantly conceived. There is a unbelievable wave machine with 19th Century ships-of-war at the rear of a Baroque-style stage. A harvest moon with stars glimmers in the sky. It is quite fine. And the music by Handel is glorious gracious, too.
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This 3 DVD state is NTSC all regions shot in 16/9 accurate anamorphic widescreen in high definition. It looks gorgeous. Sound is recorded in LPCM stereo and 5.1 DTS Digital Surround Sound. Both are crystal determined with DTS providing terrific immediacy and presence to the sound. You feel like you’re there. Subtitles are in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Menus are in English. There are numerous extras: including the films mentioned, an illustrated place synopsis, a cast gallery, production and rehearsal photos. The 48 page enclosed booklet is glossy, shapely and informative. Total running time of the DVDs is 305 minutes. Another grand Opus Arte release.
This is a wonderfully moving current production with a ample Baroque opera at its heart. If you can deal with the anachronisms and glitz, you will cherish it. If you’re a purist, be forewarned. Strongly recommended.
Mike Birman
Musically, this recording of “Giulio Cesare” is surely the best on either CD or DVD. Until now, my two favorites have been the Recent York City Opera-Beverly Sills-Norman Treigle production from 1966-67 (which I saw in person) and Rene Jacobs’ 1992 recording on Harmonia Mundi. No longer, however, does one have to sacrifice drama for completeness and unique pitch. Conductor William Christie, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and a great Glyndebourne cast present that historically informed performance can be even more tantalizing and challenging than the shortened, transposed versions from the early days of the Baroque revival. Sarah Connolly (as Caesar), Danielle de Niese (as Cleopatra), and the other singers and instrumentalists equal or exceed their predecessors in all respects. (The horns in the opening and closing choruses will honest blow you away–pun intended.)
The production portrays Caesar as a 19th century British imperialist, but the conceit is extinct lightly and is generally successful. (I can’t justify the anachronistic dirigibles, destroyers, and ocean liner that appear in the harbor of Alexandria at various points.) In the documentary that accompanies the performance, director David McVicar acknowledges that some of Cleopatra’s stage action is inspired by Bollywood films, but even these scenes do not seem corrupt. Remember that other serious Baroque and classical operas, such as Serse and Don Giovanni, bear droll elements.
The two protagonists could not be bettered, either vocally or dramatically. Sarah Connolly dominates the stage, moves with a masculine coast, and makes a most effective Caesar. And it’s no wonder that the older man falls for the gorgeous, comical, flirtatious, and phenomenally talented 26-year customary Danielle de Niese. Patricia Bardon (as Cornelia, widow of Pompey) and Angelika Kirschlager (as Sesto, Pompey’s son) carry the tragic element as they work to avenge the murdered king.
This DVD of “Giulio Cesare” joins the Handel honor roll, which includes Christie’s “Hercules,” Christophe Rousset’s “Serse,” and Trevor Pinnock’s “Tamerlano.”
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