Afternoon on 3 - Exile - Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Act 3/Exile

Handel Operas 2009 As part of BBC Radio 3's complete cycle of Handel's operas, Jonathan Swain presents the third act of the composer's most popular - and arguably best - opera, Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Handel: Giulio Cesare in egitto (Act 3) Giulio Cesare ...... Marijana Mijanovic (mezzo-soprano) Cleopatra ...... Magdalena Kozena (mezzo-soprano) Cornelia, widow of Caesar's enemy Pompey ...... Charlotte Hellekant (mezzo-soprano) Sesto, her son ...... Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Tolomeo, Cleopatra's brother ...... Bejun Mehta (countertenor) Achilla, Tolomeo's sidekick ...... Alan Ewing (bass) Nireno, Cleopatra's sidekick ...... Pascal Bertin (countertenor) Curio, Caesar's sidekick ...... Jean-Michel Ankaoua (bass) Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble Marc Minkowski (conductor) Plus Exile: Jonathan Swain presents BBC orchestras performing music with the theme of displacement, featuring composers who left their native countries. Including works by Chopin and Heine - whose text Schumann set in his song cycle Dichterliebe - who knew each other in Paris in the 1820s, one being an exile from his Polish homeland, the other having fled from his Jewish birthright and German countrymen. Plus a work by Bartok, who, because of the outbreak of the Second World War, fled Europe for America, where he was decidely unhappy. Ill-health and neglect led to his death in 1945, and he left behind an incomplete viola concerto. 3.05pm Chopin: Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21 Louis Lortie (piano) BBC Philharmonic Michel Dworzynski (conductor) Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op 48 Jonathan Lemalu (baritone) Michael Hampton (piano) 4.10pm Bartok: Viola Concerto Maxim Rysanov (viola) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Ellin (conductor) Gerhard: Don Quixote BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Davis (conductor).