Sartorio: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Scarcely any operas from the period between Cavalli and Alessandro Scarlatti have been published in modern editions. Antonio Sartorio's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, first performed in Venice in 1676, reduces this gap. The present edition reconstructs the versions from both the Venetian premiere and the Naples revival of 1680. The opera illustrates the flexible intermingling, characteristic of this period, of dramatic recitative and the incipient da capo aria, and also serves as an interesting foil for Handel's popular Giulio Cesare, which was based on the same libretto and, possibly, even some of Sartorio's music.

Urjo Kareda, The Globe and Mail (Toronto?), Dec. 5, 2001. (review of performance) Notes, September 1993 (incomplete)