Giulio Cesare - A baroque hero

The program is a collection of the most significant arias researched among the unpublished Italian works dedicated to the figure of Julius Caesar.

Composers such as Giacomelli, Bianchi, Piccinni, Pollarolo are presented as the profound historical references, the actual musical roots, fundamental to understand the value of the most famous work composed by Handel. In these compositions the role of Caesar was interpreted by the greatest singers of their time, from Carestini to Pacchiarotti, passing through Appiani and Senesino. A live and vibrant anthology of the many compositional styles in the Italian eighteenth-century, from the maturity of figurative singing until the sunset of Rococo’s taste in the pre-Napoleonic period. Recorded for Glossa, “Giulio Cesare, A Baroque Hero” has been awarded the Premio Abbiati 2019 with the following motivation: "Lush wealth of vocal skills and impeccable stylistic properties".

“Caesar is a soldier, a politician, an emperor, a lover, a betrayed father. A heroic, virile, but also sensitive figure shrewd in its tragedy. The Baroque theater has elected him to be the absolute symbol of auctoritas performed in a soprano key. With La Lira di Orfeo we wanted to pay homage to this extraordinary historical figure and absolute protagonist of one of the most represented operatic librettos in Europe between the XVII and XVIII centuries, through the music of Italian composers, contemporary artists to Handel, performing their works for the first time in modern era." - Raffaele Pe