Photo Flash: First Look at Natalie Dessay, David Daniels and More in Handel's GIULIO CESARE

Sir David McVicar's witty and efferverscent production of Handel's most popular opera, GIULIO CESARE, arrives at the Met with Natalie Dessay and David Daniels in the leading roles and Harry Bicket on the podium. BroadwayWorld has a first look below.

The opera that conquered London in Handel's time comes to the Met in David McVicar's inventive production-which triumphed at its Glyndebourne premiere in 2005. The Guardian praised McVicar's "witty, sexy, and tragic post-colonial framing of Handel's Caesar and Cleopatra tale," which incorporates elements of Baroque theater and 19th-century British imperialism to illuminate the opera's ideas of love, war, and empire building. The world's leading countertenor, David Daniels, sings the title role opposite Natalie Dessay as an irresistibly exotic Cleopatra. Baroque specialist Harry Bicket conducts.

Production a gift of the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, in memory of
William B. Warren, former Co-Trustee and Governor of the Foundation

GIULIO CESARE will be performed April 4 through May 10, 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera. For tickets or more information, visit: http://www.metoperafamily.org/opera/giulio-cesare-handel-tickets.aspx