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In review: from around the world: Houston.(North America)
Is Handel's Giulio Cesare a drama populated with power-hungry, lusty, larger-than-life men and women driven by the seemingly all-consuming, timeless desire to dominate? Or is it a backlot romp during the golden age of Hollywood? The latter was director James Robinson's take on Handel's opera (seen Nov. 8), trivializing the characters and their predicaments. Surely Handel didn't mean for his tenderest love song, "V'adoro, pupille," and the Parnassus scene to be Cesare's comic high point; surely he'd have written some other music if he'd meant for Tolomeo to spring back to life and make friends with his assassin. Yet despite the damage to the composer's original dramatic conception, the audience loved Robinson's many references to revered icons of the 1930s, from Jean Harlow to Busby Berkeley, to a dance-number shtick borrowed from the Astaire-Rogers classic Shall We Dance? The results were engaging to watch, even if one lost track of why events unfolded as they did, and Christine Jones's sets and James Schuette's costumes added to the fun. Robinson revealed a special gift for staging the da capo sections of Handel's arias, with pertinent activity that actually pushed the story forward, so that one's interest never flagged.
Amid the goings-on, there were some striking dramatic moments, such as a disturbing, wholly naturalistic ...
- Georg Friedrich Handel. (Music Reviews).(Tolomeo opera score)
- Magazine article from: Notes Strohm, Reinhard June 1, 2003 700+ words
Georg Friedrich Handel. Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto: Dramma per musica...euto]242.] Georg Friedrich Handel. Tolomeo, Re di Egitto: Dramma per musica...Haym and Handel, in the chapter "Tolomeo: Handel's Opera and the Rules of Tragedy...
- Handel: Tolomeo.(Jennifer Lane, Brenda Harris, Andrea Matthews, Mary Ann Hart,...
- Magazine article from: Opera News Camner, James July 1, 1996 700+ words
...upon the London scene. Tolomeo had a stellar cast in...favourite airs than many of Handel's preceding operas...after the premiere of Tolomeo. In his General History...is in a style which Handel's pen, and the singers...is a plummy-voiced Tolomeo, passionate yet elegant...
- Handel: Giulio Cesare.(The Barns, Wolf Trap Farm, Vienna, Virginia)
- Magazine article from: Opera News Modi, Sorab December 9, 1995 700+ words
...s first-ever staging of a Handel opera Giulio Cesare (opened...Blythe played an imperious Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, displaying...differences between Rossini and Handel. Director James Robinson stressed Tolomeo's villainy by having him...
- A Handel harvest: the flourishing Handel discography.(Special Issue: Handel...
- Magazine article from: Opera News Barker, John W. July 1, 1996 700+ words
...led by a distinguished Handel expert Charles Mackerras...was done about matching Handel's original vocal scoring of two roles for castrato: Tolomeo was taken by countertenor...only such treatment of Handel's Italian opera on commercial...
- Handel Opera in Good Hands at Pokrovsky.
- News wire article from: Europe Intelligence Wire November 15, 2002 700+ words
...the opera as a whole. Handel's operas, no less...Cleopatra's brother, Tolomeo. It has long been accepted...concerned the treatment of Handel's arias, nearly all...inordinately long for Handel. But if time is a problem...being taken prisoner by Tolomeo and coming to believe...
- Handel: Giulio Cesare.
- Magazine article from: Early Music King, Richard G. November 1, 1993 700+ words
...often than any other Handel opera. It is thus surprising...from both the American Handel Society and Gramophone...conductor chose to include Tolomeo's unremarkable arioso...relatively minor parts of Tolomeo and Nireno are given...performance of high roles in Handel's operas. Handel ...
- Handel: Deborah. (Guide to Records).
- Magazine article from: American Record Guide Barker, John W. July 1, 2002 700+ words
...brave Martini, continuing his Handel oratorio series for Naxos by...Deborah's music) from other Handel scores. These are: one for...Abinoam (adapted from the opera Tolomeo), and two for the Canaanite...decision should be noted. Handel's text calls for two appearances...
- Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto.(Patricia Corbett Theater, Cincinnati...
- Magazine article from: Opera News Parsons, Charles H. October 1, 1997 700+ words
...Music's "Gothic Punk" production of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto (seen May...black punk clothes and sunglasses as "Tolomeo's Toughs," while the Roman invaders...blend. Fraser's characterization of Tolomeo as an extremely effeminate homosexual...
- Handel: Giulio Cesare.(Sound Recording Review)
- Magazine article from: Opera News Malafronte, Judith December 1, 2003 700+ words
...introduction to the operas of Handel was the 1967 LP recording of...Konzerthaus. In a multitude of Handel recordings, Minkowski has...sizable erogenous zones. Some of Handel's most sensuous music enhances...appropriate nastiness to the role of Tolomeo, Cleopatra's bratty brother...
- San Francisco Opera: Handel Giulia Cesare. (Opera Everywhere: San Francisco).
- Magazine article from: American Record Guide Tucker, Marilyn November 1, 2002 700+ words
...delight for its summer outings, Handel's Giulio Cesare, given its...but three countertenors for Handel's dazzling array of da capo...love, makes one think that Handel might well have named the opera...Cleopatra's younger brother Tolomeo was given an in-depth vocal...