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HANDEL: Giulio Cesare (complete opera) (2016)

HANDEL: Giulio Cesare (complete opera) (2016)

May the good Lord spare us from these kinds of inanities. HANDEL: Giulio Cesare (complete opera) (2016) Performers: Cecilia Bartoli (Cleopatra)/ Andreas Scholl (Cesare)/ Philippe Jaroussky (Sesto)/ Anne Sofie von Otter (Cornelia)/ Christophe Dumaux (Tolomeo)/ Ruben Drole (Achilla)/ Jochen Kowalski (Nireno)/ Peter Kálmán (Curio)/ Il Giardino Armonico/ Giovanni Antonini Directors: Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier Studio: Decca 074 3856 2016 (5/20/16) Video: 16:9 color Audio: Dolby Digital stereo, DTS 5.1 Subtitles: German, English, French No region code Length: 249 min. Rating: ** Why some critics salivate over this kind of nonsense is beyond me. Opera Today called this 2012 production, the first of Cecilia Bartoli’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, a “dynamite new production”. Really? Do we need to see Bartoli, dressed as a cheap Clockwork Orange type prostitute, riding a rocket off into the air while singing an aria? Or performing “Piangerò la sorte mia” on her knees with hands bound and a bag over her head? Or watch an immensely disgusting Tolomeo masturbate while looking at pornographic pictures? I’m no puritan, but I do insist on intelligence in opera, and directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier deserve some kind of award for displaying absolutely none here. […]