Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759) Johann Mattheson (1681–1764) Cesare e Cleopatra Die unglückselige Cleopatra, 1 Aria: Tra le procelle assorto 7:24 Königin von Egypten oder Die betrogene Staats-Liebe Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759) b Aria: Mein Leben ist hin 3:20 Giulio Cesare in Egitto c Aria: Ruhe sanft, geliebter Geist 2:52 2 Recitativo: Che sento? Oh Dio! 1:15 3 Aria: Se pietà di me non senti 11:00 BONUSTRACK Johann Adolf Hasse (1699–1783) Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra Antonio Sartorio (1630–1681) Giulio Cesare in Egitto 4 Aria: Morte col fiero aspetto 4:12 d Aria: Quando voglio 3:53 5 Recitativo: Lascia, Antonio, deh lascia 1:34 6 Aria: Quel candido armellino 11:01 Total 58:11 Giovanni Legrenzi (1626–1690) Antioco il Grande 7 Aria: Se tu sarai felice 1:56 Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra 8 Recitativo: Antonio, e qual destino 0:24 9 Aria: Vò goder senza contrasto 4:52 Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) La virtù trionfante dell’amore e dell’odio, ovvero Il Tigrane a Aria: Squarciami pure il seno 4:08 Recording: November 16–20 2016, Altes Stadtbad Annaberg-Buchholz Recording Producer & LA FOLIA BAROCKORCHESTER Sound Engineer: Jakob Händel Editing / Mixing / Mastering: Jakob Händel Publisher Track 7 Antioco il Grande / Se tu sarai felice: Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi Photos: C Martin Förster Artwork: [ec:ko] communications c&C 2017 Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH www.sonyclassical.com www.regulamuehlemann.com www.lafoliabarockorchester.net Our thanks to the municipal works of Annaberg-Buchholz, Saxony for making the old city baths available as an extraordinary recording venue. For the generous support of the album production we would like to thank Elisabeth & Hans Widmer. Robin Peter Müller Sophia Scheifler double bass/Kontrabass violin & direction/Violine & Leitung Tatjana Zimre oboe/Oboe Pia Grutschus violin/Violine Daniel Ramírez Escudero oboe/Oboe Josépha Jégard violin/Violine Makiko Kurabayashi bassoon/Fagott Zsuzsanna Czentnár violin/Violine Andreas Küppers harpsichord/Cembalo Heinrich Kubitschek violin/Violine Vanessa Heinisch theorbo and guitar/ Sibille Klepper viola/Viola Theorbe und Gitarre Florent Laplanche viola/Viola Kateřina Ghannudi harp and voice/ Philipp Comploi violoncello/Violoncello Harfe und Gesang (Track 13) “I detest the queen. […] I cannot recall the woman’s arrogance, when The works that feature in the present release date from the 17th and 18th centuries and CLEOPATRA she lived on an estate across the Tiber, without a sense of pain. I want include highly stylized accounts of her life as well as exotically charged fantasies and REVISITED nothing to do with her.” What does it take to make one of the most entertaining interpretations of a remarkable and epoch-making woman and her fate. Above erudite minds of Roman antiquity – the stylistically influential poet all, they tell us about the way in which Baroque librettists and their composers thought and and level-headed thinker Marcus Tullius Cicero – become so abusive? felt, while also allowing us to sense something of Cleopatra’s true character through the Old sounds and new images To put it more simply: an intelligent, power-hungry, cosmopolitan and powerful emotions of these works, through their juxtaposition of sensuous sonorities and influential woman who not only delighted in reform but was said to be energy-laden drama and through their simultaneous elements of severity and beauty. remarkably beautiful called into question practically every aspect of contemporary civilization from politics and education to society itself, undermining men’s Tra le procelle assorto view of themselves in the ancient world. Revered by some, she was abused and reviled by It was Frederick the Great of Prussia who personally commissioned a others as the “harlot queen of incest”. A NOTE work from Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759) that would officially open the Historical figures who polarize opinion in this way generally inspire accounts of their lives ON THE new Royal Opera House in Berlin. When Cesare e Cleopatra was remarkable for their contrasts, tensions and positively fantastical occurrences. In the case INDIVIDUAL unveiled on 7 December 1742, the opera house was still a building site. of Cleopatra the historical figure has in consequence almost completely disappeared WORKS Tra le procelle is a typical simile aria in which natural phenomena behind a veil of propaganda and legend. and climatic conditions serve to illustrate the character’s emotions By adopting a calmer and more level-headed approach and by avoiding and states of mind. Dynamic and tempestuous in tone, the aria is political calculation and anything that might raise our blood pressure to notable for its semiquaver runs evoking waves, for percussive chords that indicate thunder dangerously high levels, we shall find ourselves in a position to paint a more multifaceted and lighting and for crescendo effects suggestive of gusts of wind. Together, they paint a and nuanced portrait of Cleopatra VII. In short, we do not need to be satisfied with the vivid portrait of Cleopatra’s emotional turmoil. The aria further reflects the way in which the crude outlines of a much more simplistic image. Cleopatra must have been extremely well character is torn to and fro between the powers of classical antiquity, the search for educated and is said to have spoken nine languages fluently. She was held in high regard personal fulfillment, power politics and everyday conventions. as a reformer and as a pioneering female intellectual. She could shine in philosophical debates, and she was equally dazzling in her appearance, setting trends in terms of the Se pietà di me non senti fashionable clothes that she wore. With Giulio Cesare in Egitto Handel (1685-1759) raised heroic opera to a whole new level. Not But in Rome her mere presence in Caesar’s company was seen as a pro vocation, being only is the wealth of compositional ideas nothing short of astonishing, but the lavish forces viewed as a political affront of the first order since her official status in the Eternal City was for which it is scored also contributed towards its success, not to mention the that of a “friend and confederate of the Roman people” – the equivalent of a diplomatic performances of such leading singers as the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni and the famous passport today. At the same time she was also remarkably coldblooded: following the castrato Senesino. Giulio Cesare in Egitto became one of the most successful of all operas murder of Julius Caesar and her return to Egypt and before she met Mark Antony, her first but only in Britain but also on the European mainland. official act was to order the murder of her brother Ptolemy XIV, to whom she was formally In her melancholic and dark-toned aria Se pietà di me non senti, Cleopatra expresses married. her fears concerning Caesar’s fate and almost dies of concern for her lover. In a heartfelt Nor – apparently – was she lacking in courage, a point attested by one particular prayer she calls on the gods to avert disaster and ensure that events take a happier turn. anecdote, according to which a servant smuggled her into Caesar’s palace in Egypt sewn Thanks to the key characteristics that are found throughout the music of the Baroque into a mattress, enabling her to make a decisive political move and save Egypt. Exactly nine era, Handel’s choice of F sharp minor invests the aria with a particular profundity. According months later her son was born. He bore the Greek name Caesarion. But we should be guilty to Mattheson, this key “is conducive to great sadness, but it is more languishing and of seriously underestimating Cleopatra if we reduced her merely to the impact of her erotic lovelorn than lethal; otherwise this key has something forlorn, lonely and misanthropic aura. about it.” With its severe dissonances, insistent chromatic progressions and plaintive It helps to recall her first meeting with Mark Antony after he had summoned her to Asia melismas such as those at the words “io morirò”, combined with the characteristic colour Minor in order to ascertain her political views. Here we can appreciate a certain refinement of the solo bassoon, this aria is one of the most intense expressions of concern and of love’s in the way she toyed with the hot-headed Roman tribune and saved Egypt from the military sufferings in the whole of the Baroque operatic repertory. might of Rome. According to Plutarch, “she so despised the man as to sail up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded poop, its sails spread purple, its rowers urging it on with Morte col fiero aspetto silver oars to the sound of the flute blended with pipes and lutes. She herself reclined Johann Adolf Hasse (1699–1783) was one of the megastars of the late Baroque. Voltaire called beneath a canopy spangled with gold, adorned like Venus in a painting, while boys like him the “hero of our century” and it is clear from at least one contemporary source that Loves in paintings stood on either side and fanned her. […] Wondrous odours from wherever Il Divino Sassone appeared in Europe, he was countless incense-offerings diffused themselves along the river-banks.” greeted with garlands of flowers. His marriage to the eminent singer Faustina Bordoni was Quite apart from all the male fantasies that Cleopatra has inspired over time, countless also much talked about. The young Mozart dreamt of becoming as famous as Hasse. And interpretations of her character and of her actions have been proposed, ranging from the yet few composers have been as comprehensively forgotten. texts written by her victorious enemies to the famous Asterix comics of our own day and An early work, Hasse’s serenata Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra was written at a time when the from paintings to films.