George Frideric Handel presentable en 1724 his eleventh operatic title - out of a total of 36- before a London audience that did not quite understand the continued musical discourse about a drama - or a comedy- complete. The preference for Masque purcelliana, the sister show of the Hispanic zarzuela, of varied artistic expression and fantastic display of intertwined actions, you would be already crazy, led the composer from Saxony to propose a kind of sum of the musical achievements of Italy, France, Germany and Great Britain. To do this, he recovers a libretto by Francesco Bussani written according to the Venetian model., varied in characters and abundant in contrasting situations and characters. A libretto inspired in turn by Corneille's tragedy Pompey's death (1642), already musiced in 1676 by Sartorio that would be duly re-stitched by the composer and his usual adapter, Nicola Haym, to offer the British audience that stage-musical variety that they enjoyed so much. Julius Caesar, in many things a precursor of Gluck or Mozart, He left for posterity a final historical reflection on the geopolitical importance of the Mediterranean East in the history of the West..
After the tremendous success of Marc Minkowski at the head of the OCV in The Tales of Hoffmann, the Parisian director returns with Händel's enduring opera, one of the composers with whom he has garnered the most praise and prestige in his career. The acclaimed American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen stars in this Giulio Cesare, which marks its debut in Spain a few months after its presentation at the Salzburg Festival. His beloved Cleopatra will be played by Marina Monzó, who makes his first foray into the Handelian universe. They are accompanied by the reference Cornelia of our days, Sara Mingardo, and other voices specialized in the German composer, as soprano Arianna Vendittelli and countertenor Cameron Shahbazi. This formidable vocal cast will wear haute couture designs by Christian Lacroix.
