{"id":48707,"date":"2025-05-07T14:17:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/review-english-concert-brings-handels-cesare-to-carnegie\/07\/05\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T14:17:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:17:43","slug":"review-english-concert-brings-handels-cesare-to-carnegie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/review-english-concert-brings-handels-cesare-to-carnegie\/07\/05\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: English Concert Brings Handel\u2019s \u2018Cesare\u2019 to Carnegie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

\n

Operas as concerts can be challenging, especially for a work with a four-hour running time, including two intermissions. Handel benefits from eye candy: flashy garb, elaborate scenery, routines with backup dancers<\/a> \u2014 anything to keep hold of our attention. And yet if it\u2019s not Baroque, don\u2019t fix it. Carnegie was packed on Sunday, perhaps with people who just want good music performed well. The English Concert does that consistently.<\/p>\n

To write \u201cCesare,\u201d Handel and the librettist Nicola Francesco Haym drew from fictionalized accounts of the end of Julius Caesar\u2019s civil war. After defeating Pompeo, Cesare follows his rival to Egypt. Cesare intends to grant clemency to Pompeo, who is assassinated anyway at the behest of Tolomeo, the king of Egypt. Personal vengeance, romantic conceit and cunning tomfoolery ensue in narratives that weave among eight characters.<\/p>\n

Despite its themes of political corruption, murder and revenge, the opera has plenty of unserious moments, and on Sunday the English Concert punctuated its shtick. The head of Pompeo was offered to Cesare in a Macy\u2019s shopping bag. During Act II, Cesare entered through the back of the house, took a seat and sang while bumping elbows with surrounding patrons. Tolomeo \u201cdied,\u201d then stood up, lethal weapon in hand, and acknowledged the audience before sauntering off the stage.<\/p>\n

All the singers were in fine form. The countertenor Christophe Dumaux, once the industry\u2019s go-to Tolomeo, now sings the title role with regularity. His voice has richened, deepened, though not at the expense of his instrument\u2019s trademark shimmer. As Cesare, he\u2019s as stately as he is charming, relishing every facetious bit. (Honorable mention to the horn player Ursula Paludan Monberg, who hammed it up alongside him during the aria \u201cVa tacito e nascosto.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The soprano Louise Alder was equally delightful. Her Cleopatra, who initially seeks to beguile Cesare only to develop a schoolgirl\u2019s crush, was charismatic and fully realized, her voice sparkling like the diadem she donned in the final scene. The countertenor John Holiday was a nasty Tolomeo with a stylish approach to the music. Holiday navigated the role\u2019s demanding shifts in register with grace, even when villainous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operas as concerts can be challenging, especially for a work with a four-hour running time, including two intermissions. Handel benefits from eye