Portal:Opera/Selected article/37

"Va tacito e nascosto" ("Silently and stealthily") is an aria from George Frideric Handel's opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, composed in 1724 to a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym. It is set as a da capo aria and is sung by the character Julius Caesar in Act 1, Scene 9 of the opera. The aria is scored for strings and natural horn in F major and features extensive natural horn solos. The vocal part is written for the alto castrato voice and was sung at the premiere by the celebrated castrato Senesino (pictured). In modern productions it is often sung by a countertenor voice, but has been sung in productions and recordings by both males and females, in registers from bass to soprano. Handel's original draft of the first act prepared the aria for a different character. With a slightly variant text, it was allocated to Cleopatra's cousin Berenice, who urged Cleopatra to stalk Caesar like a crafty hunter to make him enamoured of her. The character of Berenice was subsequently deleted from the libretto.