Word: caesars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
THERE COMES a time in a man's life when he is forced to look back upon his achievements and assess what he has made of himself. Julius Caesar, it is said, was moved to tears when he contemplated a statue of a young Alexander and considered the accomplishments of his own first 20 years. My own first such moment came at age four, when the Kindergarten putsch I had engineered was suppressed by the gym teacher...
...Nile, carries off her dramatic duties with the most distinction, particularly when you consider the tough role, the skimpy costumes, and fact that Sellars makes Larson crawl on the ground blindfolded--still singing, mind you--for the first half of Act III. Her sex-kitten seduction of Caesar--complete with all-girl band and aerial entry--would have won her a juicy part in the Gold Diggers...
...program notes, Sellars announces right off the bat that he is bringing as light a touch as possible to what is ostensibly some serious dramatic business: Caesar arrives in Egypt and is seduced by the lips and legs of Cleopatra, who wants his aid in deposing her brother Ptolemy, the king of Egypt. The typically non-historical subplot stars Cornelia and her son Sestro, who are out for revenge after Ptolemy slays paterfamilias Pompey as a gift to Caesar and an excuse to put the moves on Cornelia himself...
Sellars obeys that old saw among directors pressed to be innovative: "When in doubt, update." Caesar is now the President of the US, Ptolemy is young Khaddaffi clone, the stage is a partially completed Hotel Cairo (the orchestra pit doubles as a swimming pool), and references to oil politics, game shows, and Navy musicals are bandied about with anachronistic glee...
Most of Sellar's staging ideas are as clever and witty as one would expect from this incorrigibly bratty director. Perhaps the best scene is a long aria in which Caesar announces how he will kick much Egyptian butt in an upcoming battle while his bodyguard gets chased around the stage by Egyptian commandos...