Giulio Cesare in Full Score

Rating:
Summary: Gender Bending Handel
Review: Giulio Cesare in Egitto is one of several Opera Serias Handel wrote in Italian on a Roman Historical subject. As you can probably guess, it deals with Julius Caesar's affair with the femme fatale of all femme fatales, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. For those few who don't know, Caesar's affair predates her more famous liaison with Marc Antony. It's a fascinating subject, and no less a writer than Bernard Shaw wrote a play about it. In the Opera, Handel executes an interesting bit of gender bending that probably delighted Shaw. Caesar is a contralto, Ptolemy, Cleopatra's husband and King of Egypt, an Alto. Pompey the Great's wife is also an alto, as is the royal Egyptian advisor, Nireno. Cleopatra, of course, is a soprano, as is Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompey the Great. In short, there are six male characters, and only two female characters, but they are sung by six women and only two men. Now, this is the subject for a book or a doctoral dissertation, hardly to be sucessfully addressed in a 1000 word amazon.com review, but it brings to mind a professor of Shakespeare studies I had in college. Despite well established Elizabethan casting practices, this professor used certain speeches of Rosalind's from As You Like It to suggest that Shakespeare was, in fact, gay. Now, given this Opera's quite normal rococo casting practice, I wonder what my professor would've said about Handel? At any rate, Dover's complete score of Giulio Cesare is an extraordinary bargain. It is a reprint of the 1875 Deutsche Handelgeselleschaft edition, edited by renowned Handel scholar, Friedrich Chrysander. The score is basically for string orchestra, with winds used for extra color. There are alternates to several numbers, and they are conveniently placed behind the numbers they would replace. The book is easily read, and large enough to accommodate all orchestration. In spite of the occassional tendency to place wind lines below string lines, it's perfect for podium use. It's crafted beautifully, as usual for Dover, and at Dover prices, it's not a bargain really; it's a steal.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Score
Review: This score of Handel's second part of his own "Ring" is well suited for baroque and Handel lovers. Handel's score is very simple containing a few "Basso Continuo" arias; beatiful, and arias! Arias that are so beautiful, it makes you say that Handel was the best opera composer of the baroque and the morcoco. This score contains all arias the recitatives, and a table of contents. The score is only 156+ pages long yet is more than three Hours long! This score cannot stay flat yet is a good study score. Buy this book all you Handel Lovers!