Luigi Caputo, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spring 2025 brings to New York two contrasting versions of Giulio Cesare, Handel’s most popular work: The English Concert brings it to Carnegie Hall (as well as several other venues) in concert, while R. B. Schlather stages it in his continuing Handel cycle at Hudson Hall. As a preview Chris’s Cache offers a rare pirate recording featuring Cecilia Bartoli, Andreas Scholl, and Les Arts Florissants.

After Bartoli sang her first Cleopatras in Zurich in 2005, she waited a few years to try it out again. In February 2011, two performances were scheduled for the Salle Pleyel in Paris marking the first time the mezzo would collaborate with William Christie’s group in a complete opera. (They had done at least one concert together before then.) She and Christie had worked together in Zurich on Seneke in 2007 but the orchestra was that opera company’s resident period-instrument ensemble La Scintilla. I heard Bartoli as Semele at the Pleyel later in 2011 with La Scintilla but the oratorio was conducted by Diego Fasolis.

Rumors at the time circulated that the Giulio Cesare concerts would become the basis for a commercial recording, but that did not come to pass. Some suggested that Les Arts Florissants wasn’t up to the job which seems odd given the group’s sterling track record. Perhaps Bartoli didn’t see eye-to-eye with Christie as several years later she appeared in a staging at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, again with Scholl as her Cesare; it would be videotaped and released on DVD.

Demand was so high for tickets in Paris that a third performance was scheduled and an in-house recording of that GC is what we hear today. The major difference is that Philippe Jaroussky who had sung Sesto in the previous Paris pair was unavailable so his place was taken by the wonderful Anna Bonitatibus who had appeared with Bartoli in Zurich. Jaroussky’s Sesto, however, can be heard and seen in the Salzburg video where his besieged mother was played by Sara Mingardo. In Paris, Nathalie Stutzmann was Cornelia.

Christie conducted Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Festival in the famed David McVicar production that subsequently came to the Met. To date, however, Christie has not tackled Cesare again with his own group.

2025’s year of Giulio Cesare continues at the Salzburg Festival this summer when Dmitri Tcherniakov mounts the work with Christophe Dumaux (finally moving up from Tolomeo and who is also appearing in the title role with The English Concert) and Olga Kulchynska, the Met’s current Susanna, as Cleopatra. By the way, Salzburg’s Achilla will be Andrey Zhilikhovsky who is scheduled to be the Met’s Figaro in its upcoming HD of Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Cleopatra: Cecilia Bartoli
Cornelia: Nathalie Stutzmann
Sesto: Anna Bonitatibus
Giulio Cesare: Andreas Scholl
Tolomeo: Christophe Dumaux
Nireno: Rachid Ben Abdeslam
Achilla: Umberto Chiummo
Curio: Andreas Wolf

Les Arts Florissants
Conductor: Willia Christie
Salle Pleyel
14 February 2010
In-house recording

Giulio Cesare can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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