Giulio Cesare

A love story between two illustrious figures of antiquity - Caesar and Cleopatra - and power struggles in Egypt: these ingredients alone could explain the immediate success of Julius Caesar at its premiere in 1724 at the Haymarket Theatre in London. But if it became Handel's most popular opera, it is above all thanks to its sumptuous orchestration and its prodigious musical invention. Each character is painted with great psychological finesse, especially Cleopatra, one of the most beautiful portraits of women in the history of music. The director Laurent Pelly places the action in the storerooms of a museum, in the department of Egyptian antiquities, creating delicious shifts between characters in togas and busy handlers. A playful way to break the codes of opera seria, which was precisely Handel's objective.