Gramophone
'As a total production, Julius Caesar was an outstanding achievement in the company's (ENO's) history. Strongly cast, it had a noble Cornelia in Sarah Walker, a high-spirited Sesto in Della Jones, and in James Bowman a Ptolemy whose only fault was that his voice lacked meanness of timbre appropriate to such an odious character.'
Libretto by Nicola Haym
English translation by Brian Trowell
Edition prepared by Noel Davies and
Sir Charles Mackerras
The Cast
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano - Julius Caesar
Christopher Booth-Jones, baritone - Curio
Sarah Walker, mezzo-soprano - Cornelia
Della Jones, mezzo-soprano - Sextus
Valerie Masterson, soprano - Cleopatra
James Bowman, countertenor - Ptolemy
John Tomlinson, bass - Achillas
David James, countertenor - Nirenus
English National Opera Chorus
English National Opera Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras - conductor
Recorded in Abbey Road Studios, London
1-7 August 1984
Producer - John Fraser, Sound engineer - Mark Vigars
BBC Music Magazine
'... this version still stands as one of the great Handelian events of our time. Not the least important reason is the late Brian Trowell's translation, a model of its kind, which avoids the awkwardness and the bizarre conventions that still rage in this, the least sophisticated branch of the operatic art... Everything seems to revolve around Janet Baker's glorious singing.'
The Sunday Telegraph
'Much is owed to Mackerras. More than any one else today, he seems to have the secret of making this music live for a modern audience. His slow tempos are ideal, never too slow but extracting all the tenderness of the music, and his fast ones are full of vitality.'
