View: Next message | Previous message Next in topic | Previous in topic Next by same author | Previous by same author Previous page (June 1999, week 1) | Back to main OPERA-L page Join or leave OPERA-L Reply | Post a new message Search Options: Chronologically | Most recent first Proportional font | Non-proportional font ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 00:29:09 +0000 Reply-To: "H.E.Elsom" Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: Jephtha, Freemason's Hall, 2Jun99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Jeptha Mark Padmore Zebul David Wilson Johnson Iphis Helen Williams Hamor Catherine Denley Storge Catherine Wyn-Rogers Conductor Harry Christophers The Sixteen, Symphony of Harmony and Invention There was I pleasantly surprised by Rosa Mannion's proficiency in Handel, and thinking that she looks stronger jawed close up. Then I saw the programe insert (no announcement). Helen Williams was Amor in Orpheus at the ENO last season. Jephtha is Handel's Parsifal, his final work which confronts profound spiritual experience and breaks out into new musical dimensions. The chorus at the end of the first act seems like Anglican polyphony, but has passages of counterpoint and harmonic complexities more like the comparable choruses in Bach's passions. The great chorus at the end of the second act consists of comparatively short sections of great inventiveness and variety.The recitatives and arias blend into each other in places, making musical scenes that follow the emotional logic of the drama. A simple example of this is the way Storge's furious recitative when she hears that Jephtha plans to sacrifice her daughter develops into the aria "Let other creatures die" by the apparently expressive repetition of a line which turns out to begin the rhetoric of the aria. Jephtha's emotional recitative "Deeper still and deeper" is close to being a scena. And the orchestral part is often loose textured, with frequent duets between voices and instruments and expressive, voice-like exposed lines in the lower instruments. Unlike Handel's other biblical oratorios, Jephtha is not adapted directly from scripture. Morrell, the librettist, seems to have started with a French drama which reshapes the story to resemble Iphigenia in Aulis. But Iphis does not get sacrificed: at the moment of sacrifice, Morrell and Handel have an angel prevent it, as in the sacrifice of Abraham, and give Jephtha the letout from his vow of dedicating Iphis to God as a virgin. This is not the happy ending it ought to be: until the sacrifice, the narrative has been informed uncomfortably by the doctrine of optimism (familiar today mainly from Candide): the first words of Jephtha are "it must be so", and the great chorus ends on "whatever is, is right". We are reminded of the use of the scriptural story of Jephtha to argue against religion in general, but it is never clear whether Jephtha's persistence with his vow is admirable or not. Handel is more interested in Jephtha's emotional turmoil than in philosophical arguments. Strikingly, Jephtha disappears from the music, except for an invisible part in the final ensemble, once he has praised God for sparing Iphis. His whole nature, as a soldier, is to be prepared to kill, yet he is deeply emotional. A ritual substitute for sacrifice, perhaps, lacks the spiritual force he needs, even though it is obviously better in every way, as the Israelites acknowledge at the beginning of the oratorio when they reject the brutal sacrifices of Ammon. (Septimius in Theodora looks like a sketch for Jephtha, though Septimius' inner conflict is reproduced throughtout the Israelite society and there is no external conflict in Jeptha -- we never see the Ammonites.) This performance in the Covent Garden Festival was superb in every way. Helen Williams was a prom-queen Iphis, and didn't look like a girl who would relish a life of dedicated virginity. But her singing was fine, bar the odd fluff.It was a relief to get a baroque specialist after all. Catherine Denley's singing as Hamor was first rate. (Hamor must be one of the most thankless castrato roles there is -- full-strength heroic runs, and no dramatic or character interest at all. At least Athamas gets to kiss her little sister and wind up the plot of Semele.) She has a beautiful voice, though a counter-tenor would have provided more contrast with Catherine Wyn-Rogers. Wyn-Rogers, sounding gorgeous, didn't quite have the vehemence that Della Jones and Felicity Palmer brough to Storge. David Wilson Johnson was a slightly vague Zebul, and didn't get enough music. Mark Padmore didn't look hard-bitten or old enough as Jeptha, but he performed with electrifying intensity from his first swaggering aria to list last lovely arioso. His voice isn't quite smoothly beautiful, but it is striking and very expressive. The Sixteen and orchestra were flawless. The performance was semi-staged, with everybody acting and singers positioned around the hall, which had the orchestra in the middle and the choir at one end. It was particularly effective to have Iphis facing Jephtha across the orchestra for "Waft her angels", and to have the sacrifice staged so that Jephtha has the knife at Iphis' throat when the angel intervenes. There were some silly lighting effects, as there were last year for Samson. I don't know whether the Freemasons really have discos in the hall. Regards, Helen - H.E. Elsom he@helsom.demon.co.uk http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main OPERA-L page ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to the LISTSERV home page at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU.