Handel's 'Giulio Cesare' part of Red River Lyric Opera intensive
What: George Friderick Handel’s “Giulio Cesare”
When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday July 28
Where: Akin Auditorium, Midwestern State University, 3411 Taft Blvd.
Admission: $10
Information: RedRiverLyric.com
George Fredirick Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” (1724) opens with the head of Roman military leader Pompeo thrown at the feet of Giulio Cesare’s (Rachel Ann Abbate) throne.
The very next scene of the opera is a somewhat comic sibling battle between Tolomeo (Hunter Shaner) and his sister-wife Cleopatra (Anna Kozlekiewicz), said director Copeland Woodruff, director of Opera Studies at the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin
Handel’s “Julius Caesar,” or “Giulio Cesare,” (sung in Italian) will be performed at 2:30 p.m. Saturday July 28 at Akin Auditorium as part of the Red River Lyric Opera three week opera intensive.
The opera is “epic, dramatic, comic – a strange breed,” Woodruff said with a laugh.
“The characters are both comedic and serious, and it blends. You have vaudeville and burlesque moments in a very serious struggle or battle. Caesar was struggling with the other members of the triumvirate at that point when Pompeo’s head is delivered to him. Cleopatra is warring with Tolomeo. You have this power struggle and manipulations that are always going on.”
The director likens Handel’s opera to the HBO series “Game of Thrones.” “The opening overture is this battle for a throne, and we continue battling for the throne with different factions, the Egyptians and the Romans.
The Egyptians are further split because of Cleopatra and her brother-husband Tolomeo. “It’s kind of like Circe Lannister and her brother Jaime, where there is this rift where she fights him because she wants sole control over the throne.
“Tolomeo fights Cleopatra and wins, but then she is able to break free, rolling herself in a carpet and being taken by boat to Alexandria and to Caesar’s feet, where she asks for his help.”
There were so many historical factions at the time, including the Roman triumvirate as well as the Roman Senate, Woodruff said. The struggle spreads to Alexandra, Africa and into the Middle East.
“The opera has danger, some very mature themes, humor, extreme vaudeville and really tender moments that are very heart striking,” he said.
The opera runs two hours (of its original four-hour length), and the set is simple.
“We are starting with a throne and then deconstructing it.” The costuming is diesel punk, which looks at World War II styles, as opposed to steam punk, which is Victorian.
“I didn’t want people in togas or 1724 dress. I feel like we as an audience now tend to romanticize the past. People didn’t have sex, and they didn’t have the problems we do. It’s this patina that we really can’t break through.”
Other characters include Pompeo’s widowed wife, Cornelia (Marie Smithwick) and her son, Sesto (Sandra Flores-Strand). There is also
Achilla (Mark Billy), Curio (Saul Nache) and Nireno (Rob Colon)
“The voices are amazing, the director said, and the lyrics are sung in Italian. There will be supertitles on both sides of the stage, so audiences can follow the translated lyrics.
Music is provided by a 12-piece orchestra featuring a string section, oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon, French horn and percussionists.
The other RRLO production this weekend is Puccini’s one-act operas “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi” at 7:30 p.m. July 27 and 2:30 p.m. July 29.
“’Giulio Cesare’ is for people who like drama, who like theatre, who like ‘Game of Thrones,’” the director said. “It’s not park and bark: it’s a very theatrical opera with a lot of violence including sexual violence. It’s a hard PG-13,” he said.
“It’s for anyone who enjoyed HBO’s “Rome” or Netflix’s “House of Cards, any of that. You will not be bored. There are no dragons, only human dragons. No one is all villain or all hero, just like history.”