Underground Psycho Clinic in Salzburg
The Salzburg Festival is presenting a modern production of George Frideric Handel's opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, newly staged by director Dmitri Tcherniakov. The premiere took place in 2025.
The production, staged in a bunker, is described as a psychological battleground of love, jealousy, and despair. Olga Kulchynskas delivers a beautifully flowing and soft performance as Cleopatra, while Yuriy Mynenko portrays Tolomeo as a James Bond villain, with a mix of chest and head tones.
Federico Fiorio is physically captivating and a vocal outburst of emotion as Sesto. Lucile Richardot's alto voice as Cornelia is somewhat oversized this evening.
Le Concert d'Astrée, led by Emmanuelle Haïm, seems to hold back a bit, preferring to temper the music's extremes. This has led to criticism that the production lacks the full color spectrum of Handel's opera. Emmanuelle Haïm suggests that there were many more colors hidden in Handel's music than the shades of gray displayed on stage.
The production is compared to mass-produced items, suggesting a lack of uniqueness. However, it is professionally executed and can be seen as solid fare, perhaps a touch too subdued for a festival.
Dmitri Tcherniakov's style is described as solid but uniform. This is in contrast to Barrie Kosky's Meistersinger and Salzburg's Vivaldi's Hotel Metamorphosis, which are compared favorably to Tcherniakov's Salzburg Cesare. Matthias Davids' Bayreuth Meistersinger opera is contrasted with Tcherniakov's production, with Davids being unpolitical and Tcherniakov political.
The opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto is criticized for losing many emotional nuances, including shrill colors, blooming flowers, and subversive wit. The production is a psycho-pasticcio, focusing on individual mental states and the intensification of human feelings in isolation from the real world.
The Salzburg Festival is criticized for losing creativity and balance with the big emotions. Some argue that the festival has become too safe, favouring solid fare over risk-taking productions.
In an earlier version, it was incorrectly stated that Kosky had staged One Morning Turns into an Eternity, but it is actually Hotel Metamorphosis. Christophe Dumaux delivers a highly agile, sharp, and lyrically melting performance as Cesare.
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