Marlies'Artbeat: Met Opera in HD ends season with Handel's 1724 "Guilio Cesare"

Let’s face it; Baroque Opera Seria is an acquired taste. By aficionados it is revered for the way it offers us the most often exquisite pyrotechnics of its singers. For others it is a crashing bore, even if world-renowned counter-tenors deliver the repetitive arias in the confined ABA form.

All the action in these early operas is advanced in the recitative and stops dead for the da capo aria, which in A, repeats a given phrase again and again. This is followed by B, a contrasting section. That, in turn, is followed by a reiteration of A, its original phrase possible slightly changed via even more pyrotechnical elaboration.

No wonder the Met wanted to present a production that would satisfy today’s demanding audience that is used to more all-around entertainment. It certainly found it in the current presentation of the David McVicar playful production that premiered in 2005 at Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival and has been largely imported to come alive here.

It is indeed a far cry from George Frideric Handel’s conventional creation, possibly the best known of his 42 operas.  The composer (1685-1759) who was born in Germany, visited Italy to learn about opera, and then by Royal invitation, spent most of his life in England as a naturalized British subject. He is, of course, most lauded for his non-operatic magnificent masterpieces like The Messiah and Royal Water Music.

His operas had been neglected for more than two Centuries, but found rejuvenation in the 1920’s, for much the same reason they have regained popularity now – namely -- because we have the singers who can tackle these unforgiving works.

Guilio Cesare in Egitto (its original title) is over 4 ½ demanding hours long. It requires 3 counter-tenors, a soprano who can ornament a striking set of filigreed da capo arias, highly skilled bassos, and seasoned mezzo-sopranos, one as a pants-part yet!

It makes special demands from the orchestra which the Met’s met with its usual superb skill. Harry Bicket, the British conductor not only led but accompanied the recitativo sections on the harpsichord -- a practice, I have always admired. 

The current production delivers the singers in incredibly vocal triumph. No question, it is also very entertaining, but I do take exception to it’s being set in British Colonial times, just to be able to milk it for comedy. It gives us Shtick after Shtick, with Natalie Dessay prancing and performing truly taxing choreographic exploits while trilling her ornamented ABAs. Her Cleopatra is accompanied by two dancers who perform Andrew George’s choreography in mimic precision. Now and then they reminded me of the Music Hall’s always exact “Rockettes.”

And not for a minute do we see Dessay as “Cleopatra.” Her costuming, by Germany’s Brigitte Reiffenstuel, goes from Middle-Eastern belly-dancer type, to 20th Century nightwear, to a smartly tailored riding outfit. The exuberant finale has her in an exquisite 18th Century Marie Antoinette farthingale. Cesare who has been wearing Colonial outfits with Roman armor as sort of vests, sports a silver armor on top of the 18th Century finery here as her escort.

All of this is a far cry from our conceptions of these two characters to whom we have grown accustomed via Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw and, of course, Elizabeth Taylor’s not-easily-pushed-aside interpretation.

The comic element was carried forth by Robert Jones’ clever sets that used a backdrop of the Nile’s waves to float a series of  time-line advancing ships and a sky that ended up with dirigibles. Quite something for action that supposedly takes place during the Roman civil war during 48 and 47 BC!

I won’t bother you with the super-intricate double plot that is populated by historical figures doing their thing in a fictional story line. It’s based on a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729.)  If you catch the encore, you’ll see the super-titles make the complications easy to follow.

So let’s get to the important aspect here: The often magical and moving music, performed by remarkable singers. Handel composed the arias for specific performers with specific ranges. His Cesare was written for Senesino, the most famous castrato singer of that time. (You’ll recall that the haunting sounds of castrati, were created by an operation to the singers prior to puberty.) The closest we now come to the sound, happily not achieved via barbaric means, is the countertenor.

Today’s most renowned of these is undoubtedly David Daniels, who initially was a tenor, but as he once put it, found his “other” voice, and has used it most successfully for a remarkable three decades. His voice, possibly not quite as mellifluous as it once was, gave the super-taxing title role of Cesare the stature it deserved.

The role of Tolomeo, (Cleopatra’s scheming brother-ruler) afforded the French countertenor, Christophe Dumaux, the chance not only to exhibit his beautiful voice, but demonstrated his elegantly villainous acting ability.

Rachid Ben Abdeslam, the third countertenor, as Cleopatra’s confidant, the eunuch Nirenus, was vocally delightful, and a very successful comic foil.

A truly hateful villain, Achilla, who gets a well-deserved bloody come-uppance, was not only sung to perfection by the basso Guido Loconsolo, but was called upon to perform a back-flip off a fairly high table. Incredibly today’s opera singers must be gymnasts, too!

Now to the female roster of this over-the-top agile ensemble: Its apex is the super-star, soprano Natalie Dessay. We’ve all admired her Marie in La Fille du Regiment, not only for the singing, but for the exuberant interpretation of the role. And who can forget her physicality when she rolled down the stairs in the Mad Scene of  the 2011 Lucia di Lammermoor? As Cleopatra, as said, she outdid herself, dancing while handily meeting Handel’s musical demands. During intermission she explained that her daily Yoga routine enabled it all.

I must admit, though charmed and fascinated by all the physicality, I felt it cut down on my serious listening. Was Handel really well served?

By contrast, the Irish Mezzo-Soprano Patricia Bardon, as the dignified Cornelia, (from the second-line plot,) benefited. I “really” heard all her rich, warm-voiced rendition. I also was not distracted from fully experiencing what Alice Coote, the British mezzo-soprano, beautifully offered in the trouser-role of Sesto in the subplot.

All in all, the singers triumphed and elicited applause and even a few calls of bravo and brava from the movie-theater audience that surely is aware that the singers can’t hear them. Obviously appreciative enthusiasm deservedly took over.

Here are some comments from members of this audience:

John Curry, a true opera buff, “enjoyed it very much.” He comes to us from Greenwich, because the Connecticut smaller venues always sell out immediately. He saw a prior production of this opera at the Met in the 1990s , which “was almost like a static oratorio. And I paid a great deal more for the seat!” He praised all the singers, (admires Dessay more to watch, rather than to listen to,) found the orchestral rendition “fabulous,” and said something I loved: “I would rather be in an opera house than anywhere else in the world.”

Jacques Jimenez of Stamford, who attends here also because it is easier, found much of  this performance “marvelous and often deeply moving.”  He especially admires Handel’s liturgical music which he often hears in a parish in Norwalk. Maybe we all should make a sojourn up there…

Ruth Stein of Scarsdale, who has “ immensely enjoyed almost every performance of the HDs she has attended at NewRoc for the past four seasons” made an emphatic announcement about this one. “I hated it!” she said. “The farce was so off balance, it made me squirm at times.” Very well aware that this is Baroque opera, she called this rendition “an embarrassment.” Noting the flotillas floating down the Nile, she remarked, “the last ship looked like the ‘Titanic,’ and as far as I was concerned, the whole production sank with it!”

Marian Weinberg, a member of a whole contingent from the Kendal Community in Sleepy Hollow, thought the voices were “wonderful and the acting superb.” She was surprised that the singers were able do the acrobatics while singing. Shirley Lobenthal, also from Kendal, thought, although a bit long, it was “absolutely great; a wonderful job of presenting it in a lively entertaining manner; having a little fun, while taking the music seriously.” For Harriet Barnett, who has often attended the Met itself, this was her first HD experience. She praised the voices, thought the moving time-zones were imaginative, but found the opera too long. “It could have been tightened without losing the total effect,” she said.

Lily Singer of White Plains, a very seasoned opera aficionado, found the farce offensive at times. “There was too much of it, sometimes not really funny. Why do it this way?” she commented. “The voices were heavenly, but because of the tedious repeats, sometimes I wished I had not known what they were singing.”

If you agree with her, when attending the May-15-at-6:30-PM-Encore at White Plains City Center 15 or New Rochelle Regal New Roc City 18,  don’t read the subtitles!