Tcherniakov: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Черняков: Юлий Цезарь в Египте
Baroque opera is always a challenge for a director. How does one bring to life a work where characters typically "stand and sing"? But Chernyakov's genius lies in his complete mastery of the concept of affect, hurling his characters from one emotional extreme to another. He masterfully directs the internal drama, with a keen dramatic instinct and unwavering trust in the score, somehow conjuring endless surprises from the long-familiar material.
Theatrical wizard Dmitry Chernyakov places the characters of the monumental Giulio Cesare within the stark neo-realism of a giant concrete bunker from the Cold War era. The result is not merely an opera, but a psychological drama of the highest intensity, where plaster crumbles from the ceiling and the walls shudder from explosions.
Actors
Caesar
Cleopatra
Olga Kulchynska
Cornelia
Lucile Richardot
Tolomeo
Achilla
Sesto
Federico Fiorio
Crew
Conductor
Emmanuelle Haïm
Costume designer
Elena Zaiceva
Lighting designer
Gleb Filshtinsky
When Caesar (Christophe Dumaux) comes to Egypt on the hunt for his enemy Pompey, he discovers that the pharaoh Ptolemy (Yuriy Mynenko) has beaten him to the punch, setting Pompey's son Sextus (Federico Fiorio) on a mission for vengeance — all while Ptolemy's sister Cleopatra (Olga Kulchynska) schemes to take the throne for herself, leading her directly into the path of Caesar…
This tale of uncompromising rivalries and the corrupting thrall of political power is animated by one of Handel's finest scores, majestic in the hands of expert Baroque ensemble Le Concert d'Astrée under their celebrated founder Emmanuelle Haïm.
Salzburger Festspiele
Language
Italian
Runtime
3 hours 20 minutes with one intermission
Act 1
125 min
Intermission
10 min
Act 2
65 min
2025
18+
Stills
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