Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Vol 2)

Harry Bicket and The English Concert bring together a formidable international cast for Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, one of the composer’s most performed and dramatically rich operas. Countertenor Christophe Dumaux takes the title role opposite soprano Louise Alder’s Cleopatra, with mezzo-sopranos Beth Taylor and Paula Murrihy as the grieving Cornelia and her avenging son Sesto, and countertenors John Holiday and Meili Li as the scheming Tolomeo and confidant Nireno.

Composed in 1723 for London’s Royal Academy of Music and premiered the following February with the legendary castrato Senesino in the title role, the opera reshapes the historical Caesar — corrupt and calculating in the ancient sources — into an idealized figure of magnanimity and courage, set against a lushly varied orchestral palette that includes four horns, solo flute, oboe, and a nine-piece onstage “Muses” ensemble for Cleopatra’s famous Mount Parnassus seduction scene. As Bicket notes in his own account, this recording — drawing on decades of his own experience conducting the work in Munich, at the Met, and beyond — aims to capture the sheer joy of revisiting a work he calls “miraculous.” Recorded across five days at All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, the album stands as a snapshot of a cast of Handelian veterans at full strength.

The English Concert
Harry Bicket – director/conductor