Handel's Giulio Cesare

Lucie Skeaping looks at the plot, history, performances and recordings of one of Handel’s most enduring operas, Giulio Cesare - first performed at London's Haymarket Theatre in 1724.

The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym who used an earlier libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani. The opera, which starred two of Europe's most famous performers - the castrato Senesino and soprano Francesca Cuzzoni - was an immediate success at its first performances, and was frequently revived by Handel in his subsequent opera seasons for King George I's Royal Academy.