Latest news with #GiulioCesare
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Daily Mail
I'm Italian and these are the key scams tourists need to avoid in Italy
Italy is one of the globe's most popular tourist destinations and was the fifth most visited country in the world in 2024. But tourists will need to watch out for a few common scams while they're there, according to one Italian who took to Reddit to share a warning. Reddit user '_Giulio_Cesare' wrote the warning to help tourists 'avoid scams' while holidaying in Italy. So, what do tourists need to look out for? People offering bracelets as gifts The Italian local said: 'Never accept bracelets or necklaces from those who tell you that they are gifts, they are never gifts and will probably ask you for money back.' They warned that the scammers may even throw the bracelets at the tourist so the unsuspecting holidaymaker 'instinctively takes it'. Instead of engaging, the local warned tourists to 'completely ignore' the people with the bracelets and 'not stop to talk to them at all'. Fake paintings in Florence And another scam to be wary of takes place exclusively in Florence, according to the Reddit user. They warned: 'In Florence, some guys put fake paintings on the ground in the middle of the crowd, where one can easily step on them and then ask money for compensation.' The local resident advised tourists to 'completely ignore' the scammers and 'go away' while 'pretending not to hear them'. People in costumes in Naples Meanwhile in Naples, the poster warned tourists to avoid people dressed as Pulcinella (a comic Neapolitan character). They said: 'They offer you a photo with them and then expect to be paid, a lot like those who are dressed as Gladiators at the Colosseum. Never answer, ignore them and carry on, their goal is only make you buy something and extort money.' People offering to give directions It might seem like a friendly offer, but the Italian warned tourists to 'be careful' of people who offer directions or to take a photo next to a tourist site. They explained: 'It is never free and always paid.' Taxis with no meter The Italian resident warned tourists to 'always make the taximeter is on' before getting in a cab. They added: 'Find out about the official rates on the websites of the municipal administrations of the cities where you are so you can point out to taxi drivers if their price is too high.' Restaurants in tourist areas When it comes to eating out, the local warned tourists to avoid eating at restaurants in the 'most central tourist streets.' They said: 'Try to go to eat outside the tourist ares, where Italians usually go. If you really have to go to a tourist area, even for a coffee, always ask for the menu first, at least you know how much you will spend.' Unofficial ticket sites If you plan to visit the opera, a museum or a monument on your trip to Italy, make sure to 'book on the official website', warned the Italian.
Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Giulio Cesare review — exhilarating, star-powered Handel
★★★★★To the victor the spoils. In this exhilarating performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare, those spoils varied wildly. The night began with Julius Caesar landing in Ptolemaic Egypt to be presented with the severed head of Pompey the (no longer) Great — fished out of a Waitrose shopping bag. It ended with Egypt's new ruler — Cleopatra — presented with a queenly tiara by the lovestruck Caesar himself. Egypt was hers and so was he. Louise Alder's Cleopatra, very much a woman on the make, resourcefully fished some pins out of her dress to make sure the new piece of bling stayed on her head. The English Concert is attempting to record every work by Handel and present it free online. This Cesare will
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Giulio Cesare review – concert staging with plenty of sublime, and ridiculous, moments
There is a passage at the end of Act 1 of Handel's Giulio Cesare when a mother and son sing together, unaccompanied, united by loss. In this no-frills concert staging, mezzo-sopranos Beth Taylor (Cornelia) and Paula Murrihy (Sesto, a trouser role) faced each other, barely projecting, their vocal lines – locked in sighing parallel thirds – ringing absolutely true. It was one of the powerfully intense moments in a performance that ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Also sublime: countertenor Christophe Dumaux's lucid, liquid ornamentation as Caesar admits he has fallen for 'Lydia' (Cleopatra in disguise), entering competitive musical dialogue with a solo violin and shrugging at a flurry of musical leaps he was never going to imitate. Or his extraordinary control of a single unaccompanied sustained note at the start of his heartfelt aria in the final act, shaping an achingly slow crescendo and decrescendo in a way that was little short of bewitching. Or John Holiday's compelling turn as Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy, his countertenor flexible, his ornamentation nimble. Or the English Concert under artistic director Harry Bicket – always energetic, always neat, never flamboyant – whose string tone was warm or frozen as the emotional temperature demanded, the horns burnished, the occasional woodwind solos elegantly shaped. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the appearance of Achilles (baritone Morgan Pearse) carrying a Waitrose bag, from which he produced the plot's all-important bloodied head to delighted giggles from the auditorium. Later – now mortally wounded – he arranged himself onstage with a grin at the audience. Meanwhile, after Ptolemy's death, Holiday picked himself up, dusted himself down and hoiked his trousers before walking off. And in the absence of 'staging' beyond that plastic bag, an urn and a plastic knife, there was a lot of dramatic walking: striding and shuffling, a few tentative steps and the occasional full-pelt dash. Some of this seemed mannered and self-conscious alongside an unequivocally world-class musical performance. The constant movement on and off stage also gradually began to pall. But one standout turn negotiated the rapid switches between carry-on comedy and searing tragedy with ease. Louise Alder's Cleopatra treated the stage like a fashion runway, her first aria a heady cocktail of charisma and confidence, crooning and ferocious coloratura. Yet it was her later sincerity that hit home above all: lines sustained with tenderness and poise, her ornamentation exquisitely graceful – all utterly compelling.
New York Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: English Concert Brings Handel's ‘Cesare' to Carnegie
Less than 48 hours after a new production of 'Giulio Cesare in Egitto' ended its run in the Hudson Valley, another 'Cesare' took up the throne in New York City. The timing was purely coincidental but not that surprising. Handel composed over 70 music dramas, yet only a handful are still performed regularly, and 'Cesare' remains his most popular. Each recent 'Cesare,' though, had something distinct to offer its audiences. R.B. Schlather's staging upstate was fashionably modern, with a liberal approach to the music. The concert performance in New York, presented by the English Concert at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, was made for faithful Baroque-ophiles: no risks, no frills, no excess. Almost every season since 2013, the English Concert, led by its artistic director, Harry Bicket, has brought Handel's operas and oratorios to New York. This ensemble sets a standard for Handel performance in the 21st century, in large part because of Bicket's musicality and attention to detail. Like a good wine, this music is savored, not gulped. No interlude is rushed, no aria taken for granted.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: As New York's Opera Scene Empties, Another Rises Upstate
New York City Opera had recently shuttered when the director R.B. Schlather started to present Handel operas in a white-box gallery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan about 10 years ago. Those spare, surreal stagings of 'Alcina' and 'Orlando' felt like an elegy for City Opera's innovative productions, and for its devotion to Handel — most famously, a landmark 1960s 'Giulio Cesare' starring Beverly Sills. Now, as Schlather's vibrant vision for 'Giulio Cesare' plays at Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., the landscape for opera — especially Baroque opera — is even bleaker in New York City, two hours south by train. The Metropolitan Opera, whose 4,000-seat theater isn't a natural fit for early music, does less than it used to, and it's become more or less the only game in town. City Opera was revived in name, but as a wan shadow of its former self. The Brooklyn Academy of Music used to be a destination for revelatory Baroque stagings by the likes of Les Arts Florissants; no more. Lincoln Center, ditto. Carnegie Hall presents Harry Bicket's English Concert in a single Handel performance a year — on May 4 it's, yes, 'Cesare' — but unstaged, in concert. Upstate, Schlather has been unfurling a series of Handel productions with the terrific period-instrument ensemble Ruckus; 'Cesare,' running through May 2, comes on the heels of 'Rodelinda' at Hudson Hall in 2023. It is a precious bastion of an ever rarer breed. His directorial style in dealing with this composer's works has gotten clearer with experience. 'Alcina' and 'Orlando' were always quirky, often thrilling and sometimes bewildering. But this substantially yet intelligently trimmed 'Cesare' — with intermission, it's just under three hours — is a stylishly straightforward account of a story of vengeance and lust set amid Julius Caesar's campaign to conquer both Egypt and Cleopatra. Hudson Hall has a proscenium, but Schlather's set pushes the action downstage in front of it with two angled walls painted iridescent black. Under Masha Tsimring's stark, shadow-throwing lighting, those walls twinkle like a starry sky. A fashion-show catwalk extends from this space, bisecting the audience. Used for some entrances and exits, it is a permanent reminder of the sheer theatricality of Handelian virtuosity, and a silent dancer, Davon, periodically stalks it like a showgirl, a kind of fairy spirit of performative exuberance. But that virtuosity coexists with — indeed, is a vessel for — emotional truth. Schlather has always been gifted at eliciting intense performances, daring both vocally and physically, and he draws them out of this young cast. (Really young: This is the first opera that the mezzo-soprano Raha Mirzadegan, who as Sesto sings a floating rendition of the aria 'Cara speme,' has ever been in.) The soprano Song Hee Lee, wearing Terese Wadden's slinky, glittering Tina Turner-style miniskirts, molds her bright tone through one of opera's greatest progressions of arias, as Cleopatra transforms from insouciant seduction to despair to ecstatic triumph. The countertenor Randall Scotting, as Cesare, uses his agile voice to convey first authority, then vulnerability; another countertenor, Chuanyuan Liu, plays the tyrant Tolomeo as a sadistic playboy. Ruckus, just a dozen members strong and playing without a conductor (and with some well-chosen moments of ominous synthesizer bass), describes itself aptly as a band: It's that tight, and that wild. The group is tender accompanying the serene mezzo-soprano Meridian Prall, as Cornelia, in 'Priva son d'ogni conforto,' and then fiercely crisp the next moment, joining Mirzadegan in 'Svegliatevi nel core.' At a talkback after the performance, Schlather said that for the next installment in his Hudson series, he has a much more obscure title in mind: 'Deidamia,' Handel's final opera in Italian before he turned to English-language oratorios. It has, as far as Schlather can determine, never been presented in a full production in America. With the climate ever chillier in New York City, it would be a coup for an opera scene that deserves more and better than it's been getting.
