Singer

Giulio Cesare in Egitto premiered at the King's Theatre in London on 20 February 1724. At the time, Händel was the most respected composer on English soil as well as director of the Royal Academy of Music, which had been successfully promoting Italian opera in London since 1719. Julius Caesar, a musical drama in three acts to a libretto by Nicholas Francis Haym, was met with great triumph followed by thirteen performances with the theatre completely sold out. The opera is based on the historical episode of Caesar's campaign in Egypt in pursuit of his enemy Pompey after the Battle of Pharsalus. In Egypt, Caesar will meet the cunning and deceitful King Ptolemy and the perturbing Cleopatra, who will try to seduce him to her own advantage, only to fall in love with him for real. The opera was a perfect sampler of Baroque marvels: a first-rate vocal cast, which included the famous castrato Senesino in the title role and the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni in that of Cleopatra, a sumptuous and spectacular staging, and refined and beautifully crafted music. In the continuous scansion of recitatives and arias, typical of 18th-century opera, Giulio Cesare contains some of the composer's most popular pages such as the accompanied recitative “Alma del gran Pompeo”, sung by the protagonist before the urn of his murdered enemy Pompey.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

“The great success of the opera [ Radamisto , 1720] hastened the project of founding an academy, which had already been conceived. It had not been possible to realize it at one stroke, since many important people had contributed to supporting Bononcini and Attilio [Ariosti]. These foreigners were all the less inclined to give in because they were actually very skilled in their profession. It may be that both sides pushed the rivalries higher than the importance of the object of contention deserved. But I cannot agree with those who consider them of no importance and treat them as something ridiculous. As for those who made it a point of honor to support the older composers, or who really preferred them to Handel, or who considered it inhumane and injustice to dismiss them not because they were unequal to their task but simply because another foreigner considered superior had arrived, they certainly had good reason and good right to take a warm interest in their defense at a time when they were in such great need of assistance.

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Filippo Mineccia

Events

Past events

14 - 25 Jun, 2026

Giulio Cesare in Egitto · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

8 - 9 May, 2026

Handel/ Julius Caesar in Egypt · Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Future and recently performed repertoire

Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in Egitto by Handel

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Tolomeo in Julius Caesar in Egypt by Handel

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Caverna, mother of Stonatrilla in Opera seria by Gassmann

Les Talens Lyriques

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