Giulio Cesare review

The English Touring Opera’s spring season opens with one of Handel’s best-known works, “a big opera with a small cast and a short time span”, as director James Conway describes it in a programme note. Conway has the measure of this complex piece and, aided by some strong performances and lavish costumes, gives us an invigorating evening of intrigue.

Politics and passion are woven into its bloody tapestry. Cesare arrives triumphantly in Egypt, having seen off the forces of his enemy, Pompeo. Alas, Pompeo is not available to discuss surrender terms. Instead, his head is presented as a gift to the conquering hero. But Cesare derides what he sees as a dishonourable murder and supports Pompeo’s widow, Cornelia, and son, Sesto, in their desire to exact revenge upon his murderer, Egyptian leader Tolomeo. Tolomeo, however, has ambitions of his own, starting with his illicit passions for his half-sister and co-ruler Cleopatra.

Conway shifts the time period to the year of the opera’s composition, 1724. This gives a grandeur equal to the original Roman setting and does not detract from the complex characters created by Handel and his librettist, Nicola Francesco Haym. The role of Cleopatra is an especially plum one, with Handel having given her one set-piece aria after another. Susanna Hurrell inhabits it fully, both vocally and dramatically, no matter where Cleopatra’s rapidly changing fortunes take her.

Hurrell is supplied with gorgeous Georgian period costumes by Cordelia Chisholm, most memorably when she appears as the Virgin Mary, who steps down from an alcove to seduce Cesare. Francis Gush, as Cesare, is not entirely up to the role’s vocal demands, though he convinces dramatically. As the scheming Tolomeo, Alexander Chance is satisfyingly sinister. Carolyn Dobbin brings a warm vocal tone to Cornelia, the victimised widow who urges her timid son Sesto (well-portrayed by Margo Arsane) to avenge his father’s death. There’s laudable work, too, in the secondary roles of the oily Achilla (Edward Hawkins) and Cleopatra’s nervous counsellor, Curio (Edward Jowle).

Chisholm’s marvellous costume and set designs are set off by powerful lighting from Mark Howland. Giulio Cesare is the first of three operas presented by the ETO’s new general director, Robin Norton-Hale, replacing James Conway who led the company for 21 years. The period-instrument ensemble the Old Street Band is in the pit for all three and was generally reliable in Cesare on its packed opening night.