Georg Friedrich Händel 1685-1759
Opera in three acts
Libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based upon Giacomo Francesco
Bussani’s work
Premiere: 20 February 1724
King’s Theatre, London
Transcending history to present history
In 1724, Georg Friedrich Handel presented his 11th opera (of a total of 36) to a London audience that did not yet fully understand a continuous musical discourse presenting a complete drama (or comedy). The preference for Purcell's masques, the sister spectacle of the Spanish zarzuela, with its varied artistic expression and fantastic display of interlinked actions, some serious, some absurd, led Handel to propose a kind of melange of the musical achievements of Italy, France, Germany and Great Britain. To this end, he recovered a libretto by Francesco Bussani written according to the Venetian model, with a wide variety of roles and an abundance of contrasting situations and characters. It was a libretto inspired in turn by Corneille's tragedy La mort de Pompée (1642), already set to music in 1676 by Sartorio. This libretto would be duly reworked by the composer and his regular adapter, Nicola Haym, to offer the British audience the theatrical and musical variety they enjoyed so much. Giulio Cesare, in many ways a precursor to Gluck and Mozart, left for posterity a final historical reflection on the geopolitical importance of the Eastern Mediterranean in the history of the West.
