A BAROQUE opera featuring an internationally experienced cast and period-instrument orchestra is coming to Minchinhampton next month, with Stonehouse musician Mark Wilson among the performers.
New Trinity Baroque will present Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Holy Trinity Church in Bell Lane on Sunday, September 6, at 3pm.
The performance follows four dates at the Arcola Theatre in London, where the opera is being staged from September 2 to 5.
The Minchinhampton production is the only performance outside of the London run.
It will be semi-staged for the church setting, using movement, acting, selected costumes and props alongside Handel’s score.
Six international soloists will be accompanied by around 10 musicians playing period instruments, including strings, recorder, oboe, bassoon and harpsichord.
The company will be directed from the harpsichord by its artistic director, Predrag Gosta.
Stonehouse musician Mark Wilson, a bassoonist, countertenor and conductor specialising in historically informed performance, will be at the heart of the production.
Wilson performs with period-instrument ensembles and as a countertenor soloist.
He is director of music at Pembroke College, Oxford, directs chamber choir La Mattina and baroque group Ensemble La Notte, and also performs with The English Wind Consort.
He said: “Handel gives both singers and instruments virtuosic music to perform.
"Arias may be sweet and tender, then followed by a ferocious chorus, or vice versa.
“His versatile writing is perfectly suited to the story it’s telling.
"A personal highlight of mine is Cesare’s aria Empio, dirò, tu sei, which has a frenetic upper-string accompaniment that the singer needs to have incredible power to keep up with whilst singing the words ‘I will say, you are wicked!’”
First performed in London in 1724, Giulio Cesare in Egitto tells the story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra in ancient Egypt.
Political intrigue, romance, revenge and comedy combine in one of Handel’s best-known operas.
The cast includes countertenor Sandro Rossi as Julius Caesar, soprano Radoslava Vorgić as Cleopatra, soprano Silvija Radjen Kumar as Sesto, mezzo-soprano Federica Moi as Cornelia, mezzo-soprano Julia Portela Piñón as Tolomeo and bass Sreten Manojlovic as Achilla.
New Trinity Baroque is a charity specialising in historically informed baroque performance, bringing together musicians from Britain and Europe.
Tickets cost £18 to £25 and are available online via the New Trinity Baroque website, with a 10 per cent advance-booking discount available online.
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