Svegliatevi nel core

"Svegliatevi nel core" is an aria taken from act 1, scene 4 of the Italian language opera seria, Giulio Cesare, by George Frideric Handel. The aria is written for the role of Sesto, a soprano in trouser role, including during the premiere, who sings it to assure his mother that he will avenge the death of his father, Pompey, who was assassinated by the Egyptians, instructed by Tolomeo (Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator) to demonstrate the Egyptians' loyalty to Julius Caesar. The words were written by Nicola Francesco Haym.
I discover this aria sang by #plácidodomingo and decided to incorporate it to my concert repertoire. #baroque music is like operatic rock n’ roll 🎸! #handel was a genius!

In February 1724, Handel premiered Giulio Cesare (with Margherita Durastantini playing the role of Sesto). Sesto is a youth, so having him played by a woman makes a lot of sense, but in the January 1725 revival Sesto was played by the tenor, Francesco Borosini.

Borosini was a major talent, and Handel wrote him two roles, Bajazet in Tamerlano and Grimoaldo in Rodelinda. By the conventions of the day, tenors and basses were never heroes, so Handel had to be innovative; Bajazet is the heroine's father but has a major role in the drama including the famous on-stage death scene, whilst Grimoaldo is the villain of the piece. Additionally, for Borosini Handel completely re-wrote the part of Sesto in Giulio Cesare, no-long a youth but a man of action.

Handel's process of creating a tenor version of Sesto gives us an interesting insight into his attitude to octave transposition of roles; though he transposed Sesto's recitative down an octave and he retained only two of Sesto's arias, removing the others as well as the duet with Cornelia. He compensated with three new arias, Winton Dean describes them as extended forceful pieces with virile coloratura. The arias transform the character of Sesto from an excitable boy into a mature and confident man of action, which is of course a dramatic weakness given Sesto's failure to actually act on his impulse to kill Tolomeo.

This re-casting of Sesto as a tenor is intriguing, especially with the three new arias which seem to be worth performing. I do rather keep hoping that some enterprising company will do just that.