Glyndebourne’s new production last year of Handel’s Giulio Cesare is back already and it’s still an undoubted success, though perhaps less so than before. This time the title role, sung last year by Sarah Connolly, is taken by the counter-tenor David Daniels and while his vocal agility is beyond question, the weight of his sound and his dramatic impact are less impressive. Sara Mingardo as the stoical Roman widow Cornelia also compares less favourably against last year’s Patricia Bardon and Katarina Karneus makes for a gawkified, Cherubino-like Sextus.
On the plus side, Lawrence Zazzo - a counter-tenor in the ascendant - is suitably vain yet spineless as Cleopatra brother and rival Ptolemy and there are excellent performances from Nathan Berg’s Achillas - sure-toned, physically striking and brutal in his lust for Cornelia - and Rachid Ben Abdeslam’s highly camp Nirenus. His fluency in the dance routines is exceeded only by Danielle de Niese, who returns playing Cleopatra every bit as sensationally as before; energetic as anyone on the West End, yet she can also get her vocal gear around Handel’s demanding vocal lines.
The exotic feel of Caesar’s height of the Empire officers (think Carry On… Up the Khyber and you’re not far wrong) and the Fez-wearing servants of the Egyptian palace are framed by a stage set of receding arches and a gently glinting background of mechanical waves, as if to emphasise a sense of ‘serious’ underpinning.
This may not be everyone’s idea of a worthy realisation of a great historical drama but it’s unfailingly entertaining and meticulously executed.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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