Opera about Caesar in original Italian

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 19

Opera about Caesar in original Italian

For the first time in many years, an opera will be performed in Christchurch in its original foreign language. Handel’s Julius Caesar, in its original Italian, will be staged at the Great Hall of the Arts Centre on July 20. Its musical director, Mr David Vine, said it was extremely rare for an opera to be performed in its original language in New Zealand. “As far as I know, this will be the first time local singers have performed an opera in Christchurch in the original,” Mr Vine said. “Occasionally foreign opera companies will tour, but locals don’t usually do it.” But people will not have to be scholars of Italian to enjoy the performance, Mr Vine said. “We will provide a programme with a minute-by-minute synopsis in English,

so knowledge of the language won’t be necessary.” The problem with putting operas into English was that most translations were very general and much of the work’s meaning was lost. “The sound of the Italian is very important in Julius Caesar,” Mr Vine said. “It sounds wrong when you try and translate it.” It was similar i to Japanese bands singing Beatles songs in English during the 1950 s and 1960 s even though the English lyrics were not completely understood by the audience, he said. “The singers also expressed a preference to sing in the original Italian,” he said. “It’s better for the voice to stick to the original sounds.” Gestures, facial expressions and the music would convey “a great deal” of its sense, he said. The opera is to be semistaged, meaning the per-

formers will be in evening dress rather than costumes and there will be a minimum of acting. “There is simply not enough time to fully stage a performance, although I would like to do something more theatrical later.” Alterations at present being carried out at the Great Hall should help its “quite resonant” acoustics said Mr Vine. Seats have been raked and the performing platform lowered and there were plans to have curtains put around the walls to “soak up” resonance, he said. “The seating changes mean the lines of sight are now excellent.” Mr Vine said he hoped for a good audience. “This performance has been written about in opera publications which have gone all over the country. There has been some in-

terest from people outside Christchurch.” He describes Julius Caesar as being “a romantic look at an episode in Caesar’s life, based very loosely on historical fact.” The episode concerns the seizure of Alexandria and has several sub-plots such as Caesar’s romance with the Egyptian Pharoah’s sister, Cleopatra. A mezzo-soprano, Patricia Middleton, will sing Caesar’s part, rather than a bass, as this would retain the higher pitch of Handel’s original scoring. Cleopatra will be sung by Jillian Bartram, Tolomeo by Howard Harvey, Cornelia by Barbara Walton, Sesto by Franz Kney, Archilla by James Baines and Nireno by Roger Flury. String and wind players from the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra will make up most of the orchestra, with two harpsichords and a viola de gamba and theorbo. It will be conducted by Mr Vine.