Giulio Cesare (brief)

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) may be best remembered for the dozens of acclaimed operas and oratorios he wrote while living in London, but his formative years were devoted to the cultivation of Italian vocal music. Born in the central-German town of Halle (or Saale) and instructed in Hamburg, Handel absorbed the Italian opera traditions that dominated Europe at that time. By the time he left Hamburg, Handel had already written several operas in Italian on classical subjects. This continued after he crossed the Alps as a guest of the Medici family, who lured the Saxon composer to Florence and eventually Rome. Though he soon made a permanent move to England, his fortunes were made by his successful importation of Italian opera and Italian singers to the London stages.
For the 1724 season at the Royal Academy of Music—a group founded to promote and stage Italian opera—Handel set Giulio Cesare, or more fully Julius Caesar in Egypt. Treating the rich subject of Caesar’s pursuit of Pompey to Egypt and relationship with Cleopatra, Giulio Cesare is clearly one of Handel’s finest operas. It was immediately successful and revived for several later seasons. The Overture to Act I perfectly demonstrates the most attractive features of the French Overture genre: a stately section filled with dotted rhythms and brilliant passagework, followed a spirited, three-part instrumental fugue. At the conclusion of Act I, Handel wrote a touching duet for Cornelia (widow of Pompey) and Sextus (her stepson). Various men vie for the attentions of the grieving Cornelia, but when she rejects one powerful suitor, Sextus is arrested to try to force her hand. Together, mother and son lament their pitiable condition in music that—apart from a brighter middle section—lingers in a doleful E minor with occasional Phrygian-mode inflections (involving poignant F naturals).

(c) Jason Stell