LYRIC CONTRALTO

An ancient Roman painting of a distinguished matron named Cornelia. The wife of the murdered Pompey was also named Cornelia. Her lyric contralto role plays a tragic figure in Handel's colorful opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) set in the exotic Alexandria of the beguiling Cleopatra and her evil brother Tolomeo (Ptolemy). Her aria is one of the most beautiful and sensitive of the Baroque era.