This playfulness very a lot centres on the character of Cleopatra. Till we get to ‘Se pieta’, the function is relentlessly choreographed, even ‘V’adoro, pupille’. Louise Alder entered into issues with a will, a way of playful enjoyment radiating from her with by no means a touch of sending the function up. This Cleopatra was undoubtedly a playful minx, however Alder’s lyric soprano voice is larger and richer than a mere soubrette and even within the extra bravura arias there was a richness and sense of luxurious to her singing that hinted on the extra critical issues to return. Substantial roles like Cleopatra in Baroque opera could be one thing of a problem, with the way in which every aria explores only one or two emotional colors; right here, Alder ensured that all the things was joined up so we believed in her emotional growth. Her excellent account of ‘Se pieta’ was shifting and plausible while ‘Piangerò’ was beautifully intense, but ‘Da tempeste’ returned us to the dancing playfulness. All in all, an actual triumph.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Cameron Shahbazi, Louise Alder – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photograph: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen made a bodily imposing Giulio Cesare, trying very a lot the conqueror (thought it was unlucky that his Act One costume of nice coat and breast plate seemed extra cumbersome than imposing), with a voice to match. There was by no means a touch that the function lies quite low, he produced a beautiful even sound from prime to backside. His bravura moments have been vividly carried out with some admirably vibrant passagework, but within the critical moments comparable to ‘Alma del gran Pompeo’, Nussbaum Cohen was equally intense within the seriousness. The consequence was a richly layered portrait of a fancy hero. His looking aria, ‘Va tacito e nascosto’ with its terrific horns was undoubtedly a spotlight, while the aria on the finish of Act Two when he goes off to battle, ‘Al lampo dell’armi’ was an actual tour de pressure, regardless of McVicar’s want to ship up the G&S factor of an aria spending 5 minutes having the character vigorously leaving. The entire of the Act Three scene the place he reappeared from the ocean, with its imaginatively mixture of arioso, recitative and aria, with finely carried out and saved the main focus actually on the character.

Svetlina Stoyanova made an admirably youthful Sesto, each in appears and within the beautiful flexibility and fluidity to her voice. This Sesto was touching in his moments of attempting to metal himself to be the person his father was in addition to having beautiful parts of self-doubt. Stoyanova was splendidly vibrant within the bravura arias, of which Sesto has his justifiable share, but she made the quieter ones actually intimate. The consequence was one other advanced, multi-layered efficiency that created an interesting character, one the place gender virtually turned irrelevant. As Sesto’s mom, Cornelia, Beth Taylor was equally youthful. No dour matron, she was suitably demure and ladylike, but additionally vigorous and extremely energetic. Passionate in her intense response to Cameron Shahbazi’s Tolomeo, this was a vibrant and extremely energetic portrait of a personality who can typically appear a bit passive. But when the chips have been down, Taylor was profoundly shifting and her Act One duet with Stoyanova’s Sesto was undoubtedly a musical spotlight.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Beth Taylor, Svetlina Stoyanova – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photograph: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Cameron Shahbazi was a vividly portrayed Tolomeo, extremely colored but not too camp, he was believably a girls’ man although Shahbazi gave this Tolomeo a pleasant theatricality which emphasised the character’s sheer sliminess and nasty streak. Shahbazi was clearly have a whale of a time, there was a enjoyable factor right here too, this Tolomeo loved being nasty. Shahbazi sang the function finely too, there was lots to take pleasure in musically . As his normal, Luca Tittoto introduced vigour and dramatic credibility to Achilla’s two arias, making them really feel excess of simply vital make-weights. 

On this manufacturing, Cleopatra’s servant Nireno is performed in a scene-stealing comedian approach and Ray Chenez actually went to city. Bodily adroit, Chenez made Nireno’s antics visually expressive even when they felt, to me, considerably excessive and a tad overdone. He was interesting in Nireno’s aria, one other a type of that may simply really feel like a make-weight. Within the small function of Curio (who by no means will get an aria, whichever model of the opera you carry out), Thomas Chenhall (from the refrain) gave sturdy assist and positively rocked that kilt!

In contrast to Glyndebourne’s 2022 manufacturing of Alcina, which appeared to banish the refrain completely, this one used it to the total although nearly all of singers have been off-stage. However there was nonetheless loads of color and motion from the lads of the refrain, as Cesare’s troopers, and a gaggle of six dancers who doubled as servants (with stylised actions that actually harked again to Nicholas Hytner’s iconic Serse for ENO in 1985) in addition to dancing attendants for Cleopatra and Tolomeo.

Handel: Giulio Cesare – Luca Tittoto, Cameron Shahbazi – Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photograph: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Within the pit, Laurence Cummings saved a agency hand on proceedings, permitting the drama to circulate swiftly but with out seeming rushed. He allowed time for the soloists, together with Cesare’s barely overdone duet with the solo violin initially of Act Two, but the opera flowed too in order that we by no means felt we spent too lengthy dwelling on particulars. There was a dramatic thrust right here too. And he inspired a wealthy vibrant sound from the orchestra which verged on the lavish at occasions. There was nothing austere about these interval manners, and it made one realise that at its top, Handel’s opera firm fielded an admirably massive orchestra.

Musically and dramatically this was a vivid night within the theatre. So absorbing have been the performances that you just by no means felt the opera’s size, we have been handled to richly layered drama. I’ve to confess that this isn’t my very best manufacturing of Giulio Cesare and the opera’s tendency to playfulness was, at occasions, a bit an excessive amount of for me, however I can’t deny that the entire was a richly rewarding night at a Handel opera.