Look at life

Giulio Cesare was the first of Handel’s operas to return to general favour after more than a century and a half of neglect, and I suppose that it is still the most frequently performed. That isn’t surprising, since its plot is, by Handelian standards, simplicity itself, and the level of inspiration in the arias is astonishingly high. There is a problem with it, at least in the UK at the moment, and that is that David McVicar’s Glyndebourne production of 2005 has been so widely and wildly acclaimed, and distributed, that new productions are bound to be seen in its shadow. As one of the very few people who thought that McVicar committed an act of treachery with regard to Cesare, I looked forward to Tim Albery’s new production for Opera North with high hopes, which were partially fulfilled.

It shouldn’t be a problem that Cesare alternates or mixes pathos and comedy with unusual thoroughness.