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Dec 23 - Jan 6, 2001 |
The return of Giulio Cesare
Sartorio's long-lost opera returns to the stage in COC production
By Sarah B. Hood
Originally Published: 2001-12-09
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Kristina Szabo plays Cleopatra
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A chance discovery and a philanthropic bequest: the path that led to the upcoming production of Antonio Sartorio's long-forgotten work Giulio Cesare in Egitto is as convoluted as any opera plot. The figure of Julius Caesar was a popular one with the creators of Venetian opera in the 17th century. In fact, he was the subject of more than 50 operas. Among the librettists who were drawn to the subject was Giacomo Francesco Bussani, who wrote his version for Sartario's 1676 premiere.
Subsequently, Bussani's words were put to music by a succession of other composers, including Giacomelli (1735), Jomelli (1751), Sarti (1763) and - with the help of one Nicola Haym - George Frederic Handel himself. With so many fresher versions in circulation, the memory of Sartorio's original music gradually faded away. It was over 400 years later that Toronto conductor Gary Thor Wedow discovered the opera at the Julliard Library "resting among other forgotten 17th-century Venetian operas" while he was carrying out research, looking for "extra music to fill out the COC's previous productions of Cavalli's La Calisto and Giasone."
Enter the late Toronto philanthropist and music lover Peter Sandor, whose special love was Baroque opera. A patron of the arts in his lifetime, Sandor made generous provision for the ongoing performance of Baroque works in this city through bequests to Opera in Concert's Handel cycle and other projects, including the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble's development of Giulio Cesare in Egitto. The opera was given a workshop production last season and is now being mounted fully under director Tom Diamond, with Wedow conducting.
The cast includes Roger Honeywell as Giulio Cesare, with Krisztina Szabó as the fabled Egyptian queen Cleopatra. "I hadn't even heard of Sartorio before we started rehearsals," she says. However, she had experience of similar music through performing in the recent COC production of Giasone by Sartorio's near contemporary Cavalli.
"In Sartorio, Cavalli and Handel, the recitative is important, but the aria is also becoming important," Szabó says. "Having done the Cavalli, I actually find recitative very exciting, and a lot of the drama happens in the recitative, which is a lot of fun."
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