Giulio Cesare (Nationale Opera & Ballet)

In the midst of the Roman Civil War (49-45 BCE), Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) discovers that his rival Pompeo has been cruelly executed by the Egyptian king Tolomeo (Ptolemy). While Pompeo’s widow Cornelia mourns her husband, and his son Sesto vows vengeance, Ptolemy’s sister and wife Cleopatra decides to seduce Caesar... Giulio Cesare in Egitto became Handel's most popular opera thanks to a brilliant and ambitious score in which the following are deployed: his melodic genius, an incredibly rich orchestration and his irresistible sense of theatre. The love story between Caesar and Cleopatra mixed with political intrigue completes the seduction of the audience. Love and politics are precisely the two main themes of this opera according to stage director Calixto Bieito, who gives us a rough and ironic portrayal of characters isolated in an ultramodern world but still subject to primitive emotions.