Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s dream of creating a great empire in the east was destroyed by Octavian’s decisive victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.

In the first century B.C.E., Fulvia, Octavia and Cleopatra competed for Mark Antony's heart. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Images via Freepik, Wikimedia Commons under public domain and CC BY-SA 4.0 ...

Nearly sixty years later—likely through sheer serendipity—Giulio Cesare is once again competing with Antony and Cleopatra, the latter this time a new work by Adams that premieres at the Met ...

Antony and Cleopatra is a play of coming togethers and clashings – not just between its lovers but between their cultures, too. Marc Antony’s macho, head-first Rome meets Cleopatra’s sensual, ...

You can see each of those references in the third scene of the opera. Cleopatra has been left behind by Antony after he returned to Rome, and she is lounging by her pool in Alexandria, described ...