WARNING! This performance is intended for adult audiences only!!!
Please note that brief strobe lighting effects will be used twice during the performance.
Theatre of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Georg Friedrich Händel
Giulio Cesare
Opera in three acts
Libretto | Nicola Francesco Haym based on Giacomo Francesco Bussaniego
Creative team
Musical Direction | Adam Banaszak
Director and Stage Design | Włodzimierz Nurkowski
Set Design and Costumes | Anna Sekuła
Choreography | Wioletta Suska
Lighting Direction | Paweł Murlik
Multimedia | Adam Keller
Cast
GIULIO CESARE | Jan Jakub Monowid
CLEOPATRA | Dorota Szczepańska
SESTO | Ray Chenez
CORNELIA | Joanna Motulewicz
TOLOMEO | Rafał Tomkiewicz
ACHILLA | Artur Janda
NIRENO | Artur Plinta
CURIO | Łukasz Górczyński
Dancers
Jakub Piotrowicz, Mateusz Sobczak, Jan Kosianko, Julia Dąbrowska, Agata Kuczyńska, Klaudia Szmytka,
Weronika Wieczorkowska, Tymoteusz Rozbicki, Bartosz Wicher, Igor Musiewicz, Michał Góral
The Choir of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Chorus Master | Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz
Period Instrument Orchestra of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (MACV)
Conductor | Adam Banaszak
In the eighteenth century, opera flourished. New works were constantly being composed, yet their lifespan was often remarkably short. Little attention was paid to what had been written before—only the present mattered. Despite its triumphant premiere, George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto disappeared from the stage for nearly two centuries. The work was finally revived in 1922 at the Göttingen Festival in a production directed by Oskar Hagen.
Giulio Cesare in Egitto premiered on 20 February 1724 at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, London. It enjoyed considerable success, receiving thirteen performances in its first season, ten the following year, and eleven more in 1730. The libretto, by Nicola Francesco Haym after Giacomo Francesco Bussani, is divided into three acts and thirty-one scenes. The action unfolds over a relatively short period—from September 48 BC to March 47 BC—and within a clearly defined geographical setting. Framed by two choral tributes offered by the Egyptians, the opera is rooted in historical events, while its recitatives, arias and ensembles imaginatively elaborate upon them. A complete performance lasts nearly four hours.
Caesar has defeated Pompey and pursues him into Egypt. At the request of Pompey’s wife Cornelia and their son Sesto, he intends to negotiate a reconciliation. He is too late: the Egyptian ruler Tolomeo presents him instead with the severed head of his rival. Cleopatra, who is struggling against her brother for the Egyptian throne, sees an opportunity in the conflict between Caesar and Tolomeo. Disguised as her maid Lydia, she enters Caesar’s camp and wins his favour. Meanwhile, the Egyptian people conspire against Caesar, while Cornelia and Sesto vow to avenge Pompey’s murder. The first act concludes with Sesto thrown into prison and Cornelia confined to Tolomeo’s seraglio.
In the second act, Cleopatra, disguised as Virtue on Mount Parnassus, stages an elaborate masque for Caesar, further deepening his love for her. Their next meeting is interrupted by assassins; Caesar escapes by leaping into the sea and is presumed dead. Achillas expects his reward for military service—the hand of Cornelia—but Tolomeo, himself enamoured of the Roman widow, dismisses him with mockery and orders Cornelia brought to his harem instead.
The third act opens with the Egyptians’ victory over the Romans and Cleopatra’s allied forces. Tolomeo imprisons his sister and prepares to execute her. Mortally wounded in battle, Achillas entrusts command of his army to Sesto and reveals the secret entrance to Tolomeo’s palace. Caesar overhears the conversation and launches a victorious counterattack. Sesto rescues his mother and kills Tolomeo. At the harbour, Caesar is proclaimed signor del mondo e imperator romano (“Lord of the World and Roman Emperor”), while Cleopatra is hailed as tributaria regina dell’Egitto (“Tribuary Queen of Egypt”). The lovers pledge eternal devotion to one another as peace is restored.
Handel’s score is endlessly varied, filled with passion, tenderness, and dramatic intensity. It shimmers with changing colours and rhythms, moving effortlessly from sensuality and joy to heroism, vengeance, grief, and despair. Contrast is the driving force of the music, yet it never becomes formulaic or repetitive. This is already evident in one of the opening scenes, where each character responds differently to the news of Pompey’s death. Caesar burns with righteous anger in the heroic aria Empio, dirò, tu sei; Cornelia longs for death in the deeply moving lament Priva son d’ogni conforto; Sesto vows revenge in the fiercely energetic Svegliatevi nel core; Achillas and Curio are captivated by Cornelia’s beauty. All of this unfolds within minutes, on a single stage, creating music of extraordinary beauty, emotional power, and sensuality.
As musicologist Ewa Obniska has observed:
“The action of Baroque opera, however colourful and eventful it may appear, is not in fact its primary focus. The central importance of the aria is therefore entirely logical. […] It is within the arias that the emotions experienced by the characters achieve their fullest expression. The aria’s role also stems from the very essence of Baroque opera, which is fundamentally a theatre of character.”
At its heart, Giulio Cesare in Egitto is an opera about desire—powerful, consuming desire that compels immediate action and provokes intense emotional responses (and magnificent singing). Every character enters the stage wanting something, driven by a clear objective. Cornelia longs first for death, then for Tolomeo’s destruction. Sesto seeks revenge for his father. Tolomeo and Cleopatra both crave the Egyptian throne. Caesar desires Cleopatra; Achillas and Tolomeo both pursue Cornelia, as does Curio, who would not object to the disguised Cleopatra either. Only Nireno, Cleopatra’s loyal servant and confidant, seems untouched by personal ambition.
The drama is equally permeated by violence and death. Caesar narrowly escapes assassination by diving into the sea. Cornelia and Sesto both contemplate suicide. Sesto attempts three times to kill Tolomeo, succeeding only on the final occasion. Achillas dies in battle, countless soldiers perish, and Cleopatra herself faces execution. The opera begins with the brutal murder of Pompey and the presentation of his severed head on a platter. Particularly chilling is the fact that the would-be killers include young Sesto and Tolomeo himself. Throughout Sesto’s recitatives and arias, words such as vendetta, morte, and traditor recur with striking insistence. Tolomeo’s very name may foreshadow his nature: the Greek Ptolemaios means “warlike.”
Love and happiness in this opera can only ever be provisional. Handel and Haym wrote with full awareness of history and its inevitable course. They knew that Caesar would later be assassinated through conspiracy; that Cleopatra would also meet a tragic end; that she was far from being Caesar’s only lover; and that their relationship was, in part, political—through Caesar, Cleopatra secured her throne. She could never become his lawful wife, only his consort, however extraordinary she may have been. Such were the realities of another age, governed by different customs and moral values.
The score of Giulio Cesare in Egitto contains countless musical treasures: Sesto’s fiery revenge aria Svegliatevi nel core; Achillas’ Tu sei il cor di questo core; the sublime duet Son nata a lagrimar / Son nato a sospirar for Cornelia and Sesto at the close of Act I; Tolomeo’s Sì, spietata, il tuo rigore in Act II; and Domerò la tua fierezza in Act III, to name only a few. Yet one point deserves particular emphasis: Handel’s Giulio Cesare is far more than a succession of isolated numbers. Its recitatives and arias form an integrated dramatic whole—music that is dense, emotionally charged, dynamic, and relentlessly compelling from beginning to end. It demands exceptional voices, a sensitive conductor, and a theatrical space capable of matching its grandeur.
Reviews
From the very first moment, the production draws the audience into the whirlwind of dramatic action. This is made possible by imaginative, energetic direction and an outstanding cast that could easily grace the stages of the world’s leading opera houses. The prolonged standing ovation that greeted the performance was entirely deserved….
Adam Czopek, okoliceopery.pl
Every movement and every gesture had been meticulously crafted […] The audience came to the theatre on Solidarności Avenue to experience the indestructible greatness of George Frideric Handel…
Małgorzata Komorowska, teatralny.pl
The ensemble of soloists is exceptionally well chosen […] Dorota Szczepańska’s Cleopatra moves effortlessly between sensuality and despair, irony and love, strength and vulnerability. Her Queen possesses both irresistible charm and graceful elegance, supported by flawless singing, brilliant upper notes, and agile coloratura…
Jacek Marczyński, ruchmuzyczny.pl
Celebrating forty years of artistic work in opera this season, Włodzimierz Nurkowski has created an excellent production that skilfully balances comedy and tragedy, brutality and cruelty with joy in life and faith in the triumph of good […] Dorota Szczepańska is thoroughly convincing as Cleopatra. Her soprano is beautifully focused, powerful, and flexible, and she captures the Queen’s seductive nature with remarkable finesse…
Anna S. Dębowska, wyborcza.pl