Georg Friedrich Händel: Julius Caesar in Egypt

[micrologus]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOQqqpgf1WE&feature=related"]YouTube - 1. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np1frvPKv7Q&feature=related"]YouTube - 2. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=def7rDTqjGM&feature=related"]YouTube - 3. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOMjTCpd9Xc&feature=related"]YouTube - 4. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlZYnfThIws&feature=related"]YouTube - 5. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynAb5i1XLXk&feature=related"]YouTube - 6. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh06HeLKfYE&feature=related"]YouTube - 7. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[Alpha Centauri]

Marvellous stuff, it doesn't get better than this - an excellent musical performance aligned with a witty and well-executed production

[micrologus]

Here is some more

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vus8wZH025M&sdig=1"]YouTube - 8. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDwVcGxaMAg&sdig=1"]YouTube - 9. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ-EzvZs94I&sdig=1"]YouTube - 10. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVKq4cDCfEw&sdig=1"]YouTube - 11. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dosq8FqBwmk&sdig=1"]YouTube - 12. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaD32OM5Mlc&sdig=1"]YouTube - 13. Handel: Julius Caesar in Egypt (HWV 17) / William Christie[/ame]

[Philidor]

To what extent have our palates for opera been spoilt by TV and films? Opera is inherently ridiculous -- in real life people don't strut about singing to each other about their business - but I wonder if it seems even more ridiculous now compared to an 18th century audience.

[Alpha Centauri]

Originally Posted by Philidor

To what extent have our palates for opera been spoilt by TV and films? Opera is inherently ridiculous -- in real life people don't strut about singing to each other about their business - but I wonder if it seems even more ridiculous now compared to an 18th century audience.

I've muttered that same question to myself endlessly over the years. I can't say I have reached any conclusions, but here are some of the rather random thoughts I've had in the process...

• opera fulfilled the same social role that movies do now - its mass appeal, and the revenues it was capable of generating, justified the massive costs involved in search of a "hit", just as movies do now
• although strutting around singing might seem false and unbelievable, *shouting* (as actors would have had to do without mikes in such large theatres) would be just as wrong, and maybe singing emerged as a "more credible" way of declaiming intense passions in big theatres?
• obviously the use of emotive music to lend atmosphere, and to cover moments during scene-changes, or events too massive to depict on a stage, was very handy - and films still use music in exactly the same way today. It's remarkable the degree to which cinema audiences will accept extremely advanced orchestral writing in film scores... against which they'd rebel in the concert-hall or probably never even go in the first place
• the "star system" that developed in C19th opera was really no different to that of the modern movies, and perhaps both genres are actually the products of the star system... rather than the other way around?

[Philidor]

That's sort of what I was thinking -- less coherently. Of course there's also something deeply ridiculous about TV: people in real life don't occupy a box in the corner of the room. You could argue that opera is less absurd than TV because at least in opera there's a tradition of attending it live, as opposed to watching electronic blips on TV. I don't go to much opera but reading these threads am determined to change that. I suspect after the initial shock of seeing someone in a policeman's uniform (say) singing to a government minister (say) in a high alto voice, disbelief is suspended - just like watching a film packed with CGI, or an Aeschylus tragedy in 500 BC.

It's remarkable the degree to which cinema audiences will accept extremely advanced orchestral writing in film scores... against which they'd rebel in the concert-hall or probably never even go in the first place

I always think of Ligeti's Requiem in 'Space Odessy.' Thousands of people who'd pay good money to avoid attending a Ligeti concert lapped it up without realising.



[ame="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vidqcQpG3X0"]YouTube - monolith[/ame]



But the same happens in literature. Ian Rankin, the massively successful Scots detective thriller writer, openly says he chose the detective genre so he could insert high art ideas into as many noggins as possible, as opposed to being stuck with a 10,000 print run literary novel and being read by a few people in North London (whom he'd rather didn't read his books anyway).

[Despina41]

Well, yes, opera is inherently silly. But I think this is a little bit sillier than normal. That only makes it more entertaining, IMHO.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtWDBog5oY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtWDBog5oY[/ame]

[haydnguy]

Originally Posted by Philidor

To what extent have our palates for opera been spoilt by TV and films? Opera is inherently ridiculous -- in real life people don't strut about singing to each other about their business - but I wonder if it seems even more ridiculous now compared to an 18th century audience.

I understand what your saying, of course. For me, though, the junk that's on t.v. and most film makes me want to RUN to opera. (I know, I'm different).

For some reason, I'm not getting any sounds from the first batch in this thread.

[haydnguy]

Originally Posted by Philidor

To what extent have our palates for opera been spoilt by TV and films? Opera is inherently ridiculous -- in real life people don't strut about singing to each other about their business - but I wonder if it seems even more ridiculous now compared to an 18th century audience.

I would respectfully say that it is no more ridiculous than what some people watch on t.v.