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Rare staging of baroque operas on the way
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TWO operas featuring beautiful queens will be staged next month as part of the first Baroque Music Festival at Shanghai Symphony Hall.
The festival that aims to enrich the opera program offerings in Shanghai will feature two British works — Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” and Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” — presented by Opera Fuoco, with David Stern as the conductor and artistic director.
Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” recounts the romance between the Carthage Queen Dido and Trojan hero Aeneas, including Dido’s despair when Aeneas abandons her for his own country. Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” depicts the love between Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Antonio apart from the revenge of Cornelia, the widow of Pampey.
“Dido and Aeneas” is Purcell’s first opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. Beautiful yet sad arias are widely used to portray the simple yet sensitive Queen Dido.
“Giulio Cesare” was created by Handel in 1723. As a mature composer in the late baroque age, Handel tended to explore more possibilities in music by combining materials from his early works with others’ work. This can be heard in “Giulio Cesare,” such as the combination of recitative and aria, adoption of “da capo aria,” and the alternative uses of symphony, march and ballet music.
Though there are also well-known arias such as “I Will Weep at My Fate,” Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” is better known for its complex figures and intense conflicts, especially in Cleopatra scheming to protect her own country.
Baroque opera is not staged very often and “it may still be a question whether it can attract local audiences,” acknowledges Qian Jie with Shanghai Symphony Hall. “We just plan to offer more opportunities for audiences to get access to the particular opera type on stage, which was staged very rarely in China before.”
Stern has staged dozens of baroque operas since establishing Opera Fuoco in 2003. They include Handel’s “Semele” and “Jephtha,” and Bach’s “Zanaida,” which hadn’t been staged for 250 years until 2011.
US mezzo-soprano Viviva Genaux will play Cesare in “Giulio Cesare,” while Greek soprano Daphine Touchais sings as Cleopatra. Other casting includes Italian falsetto tenor Carlo Vistoli as Tolomeo (Cleopatra’s brother), and 20-year-old mezzo-soprano Lea Dasandre as Sesto.
Most of the leading roles in baroque operas were created for castrato, while most of them are now replaced by mezzo soprano. Soprano Julie Prola of Opera Fuoco will lead in “Dido and Aeneas”, while young Chinese mezzo-soprano Zhang Yajie who is still a student of Shanghai Conservatory of Music also won a role in the opera.
• “Giulio Cesare”
Date: December 19, 8pm
Tickets: 80-580 yuan
Tel: 4008-210-522
• “Dido and Aeneas”
Date: December 20-21, 8pm
Tickets: 80-380 yuan
Tel: 4008-210-522
Venue: Shanghai Symphony Hall, 1380
Fuxing Rd M.
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