Destino de las donaciones recibidas desde el ―extranjero lejano‖

Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) (1724)

A

s a young man, Handel wrote a few German operas for the Hamburg opera company (most of the music is lost) and a few Italian operas for theaters in Florence and Venice. In his maturity he wrote as many as forty Italian operas for London, where he helped start a fad for imported Italian opera. Probably the most famous of them is Julius Caesar, one of a trio of Handel masterpieces written in the years 1724–25, the others being Rodelinda and Tamerlano.

Background Like most opera seria plots of the late Baroque era, Julius Caesar draws on Roman history. Cleopatra, the famous queen of Egypt, applied her formidable charms to Julius Caesar and then, after Caesar’s assassination, also to his successor Mark Antony. Shakespeare deals with the second of these famous affairs in his play Antony and Cleopatra; Handel tackles the fi rst.

Handel’s librettist added a great deal of nonhistorical plot material. His-tory tells that Pompey — who comes into the sHis-tory because he waged war on Caesar and lost and fl ed to Egypt — was murdered by one of his soldiers, but

11 2

For connoisseurs of the day, a great deal depended on the A repeats, since it was there that the star singers really dazzled their audiences. Many modern singers have relearned the lost improvisational art of the Baroque era, and we can recapture some of the original excitement on recordings.

Cornelia, is thrown into Ptolemy’s harem and has to resist his advances (among others’). Her son Sextus rattles around the opera swearing vengeance on Ptolemy and fi nally kills him. The historical Cleo patra poisoned Ptolemy, but her character in the opera is whitewashed, and she gets to sing some of the most ravishing, seductive music while disguised as her own maid. All this gives a taste of the typical complications in an opera seria plot.

Although the role of Sextus, for mezzo-soprano, was presumably meant for a castrato, at the fi rst per formance it was sung by a woman singer who was one of Handel’s regulars.

Aria, “La giustizia” Sextus promises revenge on Ptolemy, not for the fi rst time, in the aria “La giustizia” (Justice). This aria is preceded or, rather, set up by a recitative (as usual). Since it makes more sense to study recitative when the words are in English, we leave that discussion until we get to Handel’s Messiah.

The aria starts with a ritornello played by the string orchestra, like the opening section of a concerto movement (see page 121). It establishes the mood right away:

The “affect” Handel means to covey by this strenuous, vigorous music is anger, and Sextus starts up with the same music. We will hear this ritornello three more times, once in a shortened form, prior to the second A section.

Apart from this shortened ritornello, “La giustizia” is in strict A B A (da capo) form. In the A section Handel goes through the words three times, with the orchestra interjecting to allow the singer to catch her breath. (These short spacers are not marked on the Listen box.) Notice how the music tends to explode angrily on certain key words, principally by the use of coloratura (fast scales and turns), as on “ven-det-ta” (vengeance) and “tradi-tor” (traitor). Even more vivid are the sudden high notes on “pu-ni-re” (punish) and a suspense-making long note on “tradi-tor.”

There is a fl amboyant effect typical of the Baroque near the end of A, where Sextus dramatically comes to a stop. After a breathless pause, he moves on to make a very forceful fi nal cadence. Revenge is nigh!

The aria’s B section introduces new words and some new keys for contrast;

both features are typical in da capo arias. Otherwise it is brief and seems rather subdued — the strings drop out, leaving only the continuo as accompaniment.

What the audience is waiting for is the repeat of A, where we can forget about Sextus and get to admire a display of vocal virtuosity. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the singer on our recording, adds brilliant improvised fl ourishes to the high notes on “pu-ni-re” and the long note on “tradi-tor.” When she gets to the fermata in A she fi lls it in with a cadenza (page 128), and her (ornamented) fi nal cadence sweeps us away. Anyone who can carry off a feat like this, the aria seems to say, will be more than a match for Ptolemy.

Vocal cadenzas at the time were short, because they were supposed to be sung in a single breath — thus showing off virtuoso breath control as well as vocal technique and inventiveness.

2 Oratorio

Sacred, or religious, vocal music of the Baroque era exhibits much diversity in style and form. Most of it was written directly for church services, and so its style and form depend fi rst of all on whether those services were of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Anglican rite. Every service has places where music is appropriate, or even specifi ed by the liturgy. In principle, each place gives rise to a different musical genre.

There are, however, two general factors that are important for all Baroque sacred-music genres — oratorio and passion, cantata, Mass, and motet. One of these factors is traditional in origin; the other is specifi c to the Baroque era.



The traditional factor is the participation of the choir. A simple point, perhaps; choral music has had a functional place in the religious music of virtually all rites and ages. For when one person utters a religious text, he or she speaks as an individual, but when a choir does so, it speaks as a united community. A church choir can be said to speak for the whole church, even for the whole of Christianity.



The other important fact about Baroque sacred vocal music is its strong tendency to borrow from secular vocal music — which is to say, from opera.

In an era fascinated by the theater, the church grew more and more theatrical.

Arias inspired by Italian opera seria appear even in Baroque settings of the Catholic Mass. Solo singers could display their vocal prowess at the same time as they were presenting parts of the divine service.

The most operatic of all religious genres was oratorio, which existed in Catholic and Protestant countries alike. An oratorio is basically an opera on a religious subject, such as an Old Testament story or the life of a saint. It has a narrative plot in several acts, real characters, and implied action — even though orato-rios were not staged, but presented in concert form, that is, without scenery, costumes, or acting. Oratorio takes over such operatic features as recitatives

Handel, Julius Caesar, Aria “La giustizia”

0:00 A RITORNELLO

0:16 St. 1: fi rst time La giustizia ha già sull’ arco Justice now has in its bow Pronto strale alla vendetta The arrow primed for vengeance Per punire un traditor To castigate a traitor!

0:50 St. 1: second time La giustizia . . . etc.

1:10 St. 1: third time La giustizia . . . etc.

1:31 RITORNELLO

1:47 B St. 2: Quanto è tarda la saetta The later the arrow is shot, Tanto più crudele aspetta The crueler is the pain suffered La sua pena un empio cor. By a dastardly heart!

2:15 A RITORNELLO

2:22 (abbreviated) La giustizia . . . etc. Justice . . . etc.

For a note on Italian pronunciation, see page 89: “La joostidzia (ah) jah sool arco.”

L I S T E N

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“

On Tuesday the 2nd day of May will be performed, the Sacred Story of Esther, an Oratorio in English. Formerly composed by Mr. Handel, and now revised by him, with several Additions. . . . N.B. There will be no Action on the Stage.”

London newspaper announcement, 1731

G

eorg Friedrich Händel — he anglicized his name to George Frideric Handel after settling in England — was one of the few composers of early days who did not come from a family of musicians. His father was a barber-surgeon and a valet at a court near Leipzig. He disapproved of music, and the boy is said to have studied music secretly at night, by candlelight. In deference to his father’s wishes, Handel studied law for a year at Halle, one of Germany’s major universities, before fi nally joining the orchestra at Hamburg, Germany’s leading center of opera.

From then on, it was an exciting, glamorous life. Still in his teens, Handel fought a duel with another Hamburg musician about which of them was to get top billing. In 1706 he journeyed to the homeland of opera and scored big successes in Venice, Florence, and Rome. Though he became a court musician for the elector of Hanover, in northern Germany, he kept requesting (and extending) leaves to pursue his career in London, a city that was then beginning to rival Paris as the world capital.

Here Handel continued to produce Italian operas, again with great success. He also wrote a fl attering birth-day ode for Queen Anne and some big pieces to celebrate a major peace treaty; for this he was awarded an annuity.

In 1717, after the elector of Hanover had become George I of England, Handel got back into his good graces by com-posing music to be played in a royal celebration on barges on the River Thames. This famous Water Music consists of two suites for the Baroque festive orchestra.

As an opera composer, Handel had learned to gauge the taste of the public and also to fl atter singers, writing music for them that showed off their voices to the best advantage. He now became an opera impresario — today we would call him a promoter — recruiting singers and negotiating their contracts, planning whole seasons of opera, and all the while composing the main attractions himself: an opera every year, on average, in the 1720s

and 1730s. He also had to deal with backers — English aristocrats and wealthy mer-chants who supported his opera companies and per-suaded their friends to take out subscriptions for boxes.

Handel made and lost several fortunes, but he al-ways landed on his feet, even when Italian opera went

out of style in Britain, for he never lost a feel for his audi-ence. After opera had failed, he popularized oratorios — retellings of Bible stories (mostly from the Old Testament) in a half operatic, half choral form. Opera audiences had always been ready to identify opera’s virtuous Roman emperors with local princes. Now they were delighted to identify oratorio’s virtuous People of Israel with the British nation.

Handel was a big, vigorous man, hot-tempered but quick to forgive, humorous and resourceful. When a par-ticularly temperamental prima donna had a tantrum, he calmed her down by threatening to throw her out the window. At the end of his life he became blind — the same surgeon operated (unsuccessfully) on both him and Bach — but he continued to play the organ brilliantly and composed by dictating to a secretary.

Chief Works: 40 Italian operas, including Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) Near-operatic works in English: Semele and Acis and Galatea Oratorios, including Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Samson, and Saul Concerti grossi and organ concertos Water Music, written for an aquatic fete on the River Thames, and Royal Fire-works Music, celebrating the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, in 1747 Sonatas for various instruments

Encore: After Messiah, listen to Acis and Galatea; Concerto Grosso in B-fl at, Op. 6, No. 7.

In document INSTITUTO DE LA PAZ Y LOS CONFLICTOS (página 101-108)