Giulio Cesare as character in Graun's opera, "Cesare e Cleopatra"

Speranza

Cesare e Cleopatra is a dramma per musica in three acts by composer Carl Heinrich Graun.

The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Giovan Gualberto Bottarelli.

 

Royal Opera House, Berlin in 1832; today it is the Staatsoper Unter den Linden

It was commissioned by Frederick II of Prussia for the opening of the newly built Königliches Opernhaus (Royal Opera House) in Berlin, and was notably the inaugural performance of the newly formed Berlin State Opera.

Although construction of the opera house was not entirely complete, the opera premiered in the new theatre using a German language translation on 7 December 1742 under the baton of the composer.

The production starred soprano Maria Giovanna Gasparini as Cleopatra VII and castrato Paolo Bedeschi as Julius Caesar.^[1]

[edit] Recordings

• 1992 on the Serenissima label (360171), live: Jacobs/Williams-J/Dawson/Beronesi/Popken/Francis/Rayam/Trekel
• 1995 on the HM label (mis-titled "Cleopatra e Cesare"): Jacobs/Williams-J/Dawson/Vermillion/Popken/Francis/Gambill/Häger

[edit] References

1. ^ Cesare e Cleopatra at www.amadeusonline.net