Forego warnings about 'Cesare' and experience its power
By Peter Jacobi
February 22, 2009
"Be afraid," goes the warning sometimes used to promote fright movies. "Be very much afraid." Some potential viewers might actually be drawn away by such an alert, but the publicists' hope, of course, is that far more fans will be attracted.
If anyone says “Be afraid” to you about “Giulio Cesare,” don’t even listen to the admonition. “Giulio Cesare” is no fright movie. It’s not frightening. Take my word. Better yet, take the words of two gentlemen in charge of preparing the production of “Giulio Cesare” that opens at the Musical Arts Center next Friday evening.
We’re talking about an opera, quite probably the greatest written by George Frideric Handel. It is the IU Opera Theater’s object of current attention. Yes, “Giulio Cesare” was written a long time ago (1724). Yes, it’s a concoction from the Baroque period, and folks used to speak disparagingly of operas written in that era as being all style and no substance and usually too long at that.
Nonsense, says I. Nonsense, say Tom Diamond and Gary Thor Wedow, two fellows who know an awful lot about “Giulio Cesare,” or “Julius Caesar,” as we would say in English.
“I love this opera,” says stage director Diamond. “The music is extraordinary. Handel was a genius at operatic writing. This is his masterpiece. There are such great tunes in the opera. It’s only because Baroque opera was so long out of fashion that we haven’t fully caught up to the melodies in such a score as this. The music infects me. From when I first heard it, it made me weep, even in the happy parts. And there’s such drama in the music, too.”
“The plot is rich and exciting, with lots of turns and surprises,” adds conductor Wedow. “Emotions crowd the stage. What happens and what you hear in the music are all about dramatic, exciting people. Remember, it was Handel who threatened to throw his sopranos out the window, and hold them there, if they didn’t stop fighting and causing everyone around them grief. He was a passionate man, and his operatic music reflects his personality.”
You wouldn’t always know this from looking at Baroque scores, Wedow explains. “Remember that when these pieces were written, the composers were there to show what they had in mind. There are hardly any expressive marks in the scores, but I believe they saw to it that the music was played in very expressive ways. It is my job as conductor to take the place of the composer. We’re making ‘Giulio Cesare’ expressive, but in ways we think are authentic in style.”
Wedow and Diamond, each arriving here with impressive operatic credentials, have worked together before on Baroque operas, those of Pier Francesco Cavalli and Antonio Sartorio, including the latter’s “Giulio Cesare in Egitto.” “Handel used the same libretto,” says Wedow. “He rearranged it. He’d often do that, then write new and longer arias, cut down the recitatives. In the case of ‘Giulio Cesare,’ Handel’s genius made a profound difference.”
“I hope viewers will come,” says Diamond. “Everything about this opera is motivated through intention and action. The characters are iconic. Caesar is a politician, statesman, soldier, poet, lover and very much a human being. Cleopatra is beautiful and powerful. She’s smart and wily. What follows after their meeting is all about glamour and love. We’ll have action, but be assured that the singers won’t be running around just to run around. I’m an opera director. Opera isn’t theater. It’s more. It requires great singing, and singers shouldn’t be running around too much. Stillness can be exciting. It’s a matter of finding the balance.”
The story of the opera recounts Caesar’s hunt in Egypt for Pompey, the Roman general and his rival. Sister and brother, Cleopatra and Ptolemy, are co-rulers there. Cleopatra plans to seduce Caesar into helping her against her brother. Ptolemy, who has murdered Pompey, plans to kill Caesar as well. Political plots gather steam. Battles ensue. In the end, Ptolemy gets his due. Justice and love triumph. Caesar crowns Cleopatra as sole ruler of Egypt. And all of it comes along with glorious music.
“We’ve made some cuts,” says Wedow. Without them, the opera lasts well beyond four hours. “We’ve got it down to three hours and 10 minutes, with two intermissions. We’ve done so to make it agreeable for the audience and manageable for our young singers. The cutting was not easy. Handel was a magnificent architect. His operas are constructed brilliantly, with a dramatic arc. We’ve worked very hard to preserve the architecture. And, you know, that’s what Handel himself used to do, make changes for an audience when he felt it necessary.”
Both Wedow and Diamond say rehearsals have been going famously. “Tom believes very firmly that young performers need to really act,” says Wedow. “These kids are acting,” to which Diamond adds, “When I came in October, we did a master class on style. So, when rehearsals started, what we wanted wasn’t alien.”
Wedow, speaking of additional master classes on Baroque ornamentation, says the singers were encouraged to write their own. “We’ve been trying to create an atmosphere in which they can risk and try and experiment and, thereby, more comfortably accept the challenges of Handel. I think the opera is very well cast. The Cleopatras are magnificent. And we have four countertenors to sing Caesar and Ptolemy. They make quite a difference in terms of authenticity.”
For Diamond, spending time at the Jacobs School is a new experience. For Wedow, it is not. He’s an IU alum and former piano major, a student of George Bolet who, he says, “had a great love for opera, and when he knew of my interest in it, encouraged me and made sure I got the opportunity to accompany singers. I did, those of Margaret Harshaw and Gianna d’Angelo. And, you know, coming back walking the halls, the memories returned. I could imagine them and Dean Bain there again, keeping us in line.”
Wedow did his master’s work in Boston, began to play for the Handel and Haydn Society, worked for Thomas Dunn “who gave me my interest in Early Music.” Dunn later came to IU to serve the School of Music as a favored choral conductor. Wedow expresses gratitude that when he was here last fall, to also guest conduct a performance of Rossini’s “Petite messe solennelle,” he had opportunity to spend weeks with Maestro Dunn, and to do so not long before his death. “It was he who put pieces of my life together.”
Show times
- This afternoon at 1 in Sweeney Hall, Artsweek Panel Discussion, “Arts, Diplomacy, and the U.S.A.,” with Karim Wasfi of the Baghdad Symphony, conductor Cliff Colnot, Jacobs Dean Emeritus Charles Webb and others.
- This afternoon at 3 in Ford-Crawford hall, faculty violinist Mark Kaplan plays Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Part 2.
- This evening at 6 in Recital Hall, a program of Bartok (Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano) and Penderecki (Sextet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, and Horn) features Ik-Hwan Bae, Sung Mi Im, Jeffrey Nelsen, James Campbell and Nokuthula Ngwenyama.
- Tuesday evening at 8 in Recital Hall, clarinetist James Campbell, cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Shigeo Neriki play Beethoven’s Trio in B-Flat Major, Opus 11, and Brahms’ Trio in A Minor, Opus 114.
- Tuesday evening at 8:30 in Ford-Crawford, Pat Harbison directs the IU Jazz Combo.
- Wednesday evening at 8 in Recital Hall, faculty pianist Emile Naoumoff and violinist Kevork Mardirossian collaborate in Brahms’ Sonatas for Violin and Piano.
- Thursday evening at 8 in the IU Auditorium, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange presents “Ferocious Beauty: Genome,” a blending of dance with posed questions of molecular biology. Tickets: $25-$33 for general public; $13-$23 for students.
- Friday evening at 7 in Recital Hall, the Symphonic Choir, led by Vivian Ip and Jennifer Carpenter, sing works of Byrd, Webbe, Benedict and Sullivan.
- Saturday afternoon at 3 in Recital Hall, Eva Legene directs the Concentus Recorder Ensemble in recorder music of Italy.
- Saturday afternoon at 3 in Sweeney Hall, an Artsweek forum, “East-West Cultural Politics: ‘Mugham Opera’ of the Silk Road,” features Aida Huseynova in a discussion of Azerbaijan’s “Mugham Opera” and its reincarnation in the repertoire of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.
All of the above, except the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, are free.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
