april - may 2025, “GIULIO CESARE” opera by Handel, commissioned by hudson hall at the historic hudson opera house, production R.B. Schlather, with Ruckus early music, song-hee lee, randall scotting, meridian prall, chuan liu, raha mirzadegan, douglass williams, rolfe dauz, matthew deming, and davon, costume terese wadden, light Masha Tsimring, dramaturge Joseph Cermatori, hair and makeup Matia Emsellem, supertitles Steven Jude Tietjen, assistant director michael hoffmann, Fight/Intimacy/Movement Skye Bronfenbrenner, stage manager LJ Mccaw, light associate Vittoria Orlando, set associate Erica Zhang, wardrobe Quinn Czejkowski, music preparation David Sytkowski, rehearsal photography Lauren Lancaster, production photography Matthew Placek, video production tobin del cuore, publicist Aleba Gartner, Associate Producer Daniel Stermer
“It is a precious bastion of an ever rarer breed.” — Zach Woolfe, NYTimes
“R.B. Schlather’s vibrant staging of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare,” playing in the Hudson Valley, is a bright spot in a bleak landscape for Baroque work…Schlather has been unfurling a series of Handel productions with the terrific period instrument ensemble Ruckus…Ruckus, just a dozen members strong and playing without a conductor, describes itself aptly as a band: it’s that tight, and that wild…At a talkback after the performance, Schlather said that for the next installment in his Hudson series, he has a much more obscure title in mind: “Deidamia,” Handel’s final opera in Italian before he turned to English-language oratorios. With the climate ever chillier in New York City, it would be a coup for an opera scene that deserves more and better than it’s been getting.”
— Zach Woolfe, NYTimes
“His strength as a director was in eliciting thrilling, risk-taking performances from his collaborators. He ignored Hudson Hall’s proscenium and placed in front of it his simple set of two towering black walls angled together. There in Terese Wadden’s contemporary costumes and Masha Tsimring’s haunting chiaroscuro lighting, the singers threw themselves into Handel and Haym’s characters with both dramatic intensity and musical flair.”
— Christopher Corwin, Observer
“R.B. Schlather and Ruckus rock “Giulio Cesare” in revelatory Hudson Hall production. With its campy edge, swaggering wit, and kinetic staging, this show is tailor-made for first-time opera goers…not merely a fresh take on Handel’s opera — it is a thoroughly modern vision of what opera can be — one powered by sheer glee and enthusiasm and guided by an extraordinary unity of vision.”
— Berkshire Edge
“As Mr. Schlather writes in his brief introductory program note regarding the physicality and sheer energy of Handel’s music: “that’s the vibe for this Handel series in Hudson: bold, visceral, and unapologetically thrilling. No words could better describe this captivating Giulio Cesare, anchored by Rukus, the visceral, conductorless period instrument ensemble of twelve. …with a catwalk bisecting the audience providing space for impromptu theatricality, a talented, young and charismatic cast cut to the core of the drama at every turn, whether intense or playful”
— Opera con brio
