Special offer. Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Dame Janet Baker (Julius Caesar), Valerie Masterson (Cleopatra), Della Jones (Sextus), Sarah Walker (Cornelia), James Bowman (Ptolemy), John Tomlinson (Achillas), Christopher Booth-Jones (Curio), David James (Nirenus)
English National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras
Awards:
-
Building a Library, December 2011, First Choice (CD)
This opera was a personal triumph for Dame Janet. As Caesar, she arms the voice with an impregnable firmness, outgoing and adventurous.
Valerie Masterson shares the honours with Dame Janet,...
Special offer. Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Dame Janet Baker (Julius Caesar), Valerie Masterson (Cleopatra), Della Jones (Sextus), Sarah Walker (Cornelia), James Bowman (Ptolemy), John Tomlinson (Achillas), Christopher Booth-Jones (Curio), David James (Nirenus)
English National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Building a Library, December 2011, First Choice (CD)
This opera was a personal triumph for Dame Janet. As Caesar, she arms the voice with an impregnable firmness, outgoing and adventurous.
Valerie Masterson shares the honours with Dame Janet,...
About
Contents and tracklist
- James Bowman (countertenor), Della Jones (mezzo-soprano), Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano), John Tomlinson (bass), Valerie Masterson (soprano), Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), David James (countertenor), Christopher Booth-Jones (baritone)
- English National Opera Chorus, English National Opera
- Sir Charles Mackerras
Act I Scene 3: Alas! Reviled and neglected, must I remain here for ever? (Cornelia, Sextus, Cleopatra, Nirenus)
Track length2:03
Act I Scene 4: Sire, with Sextus her son, the lady Cornelia (Achillas, Cornelia, Sextus, Ptolemy)
Track length1:58
Act II Scene 1: Have you done as I ordered, faithful Nirenus? (Cleopatra, Nirenus, Caesar)
Track length2:48
Act III Scene 1: Nirenus, the battle is fought and lost (Sextus, Achillas, Caesar, Curio)
Track length2:32
Act III Scene 3: Here, Curio and your legions (Nirenus, Caesar, Sextus, Cornelia, Cleopatra)
Track length2:27
Spotlight on this release
Awards and reviews
2010
This opera was a personal triumph for Dame Janet. As Caesar, she arms the voice with an impregnable firmness, outgoing and adventurous.
Valerie Masterson shares the honours with Dame Janet, a Cleopatra whose bright voice gains humanity through ordeal. The tinkle of surface- wear clears delightfully in her later arias, sung with a pure tone and high accomplishment.
As a total production, Julius Caesar was an outstanding achievement in ENO's history.
Strongly cast, it had a noble Cornelia in Sarah Walker, a high-spirited Sesto in Della Jones, and in James Bowman a Ptolemy whose only fault was that his voice lacked meanness of timbre appropriate to the odious character. John Tomlinson's massive bass also commands attention.
Mackerras's conducting is impeccable and the opera is given in clear, creditable English.
(See next review for the video equivalent.)
2010
the ravishing accompaniments to the two big Cleopatra arias amply justify the use by the excellent ENO orchestra of modern rather than period instruments...The full, vivid studio sound makes this one of the very finest of the invaluable series of ENO opera recordings in English.
August 2014
Even if opera in English translation (or baroque opera on modern instruments) doesn't usually grab you, Charles Mackerras's legendary 1979 remains unmissable, not least for Dame Janet Baker's supremely authoritative Caesar, Sarah Walker's stately Cornelia and John Tomlinson's blustery Achilla.