Deborah          Franzita Whelan
Barak            James Bowman
Jael             Joanne Lunn
Sisera           Clint van der Linde
Abinoam          James Rutherford
Israelite woman  Rebecca Outram
Herald           Andrew Carwood
Israelite priest Charles Gibbs
Priest of Baal   James Gower

Conductor        Laurence Cummings

London Handel Choir, London Handel Orchestra

 Deborah was the first oratorio Handel produced specifically for the
 public theatre, in 1733. (He  produced an official theatrical version in
 of Esther, originally composed as a private devotional work,  in 1732
 after others pirated it.) Deborah reuses some familiar church music, and
 its Anglican  triumphalism seems both shocking and ridiculous to a
 modern audience, particularly in contrast to  Jephtha, whose plot -- an
 outsider is selected to lead the Israelites against heathen oppression
 -- is  broadly similar. In Deborah, killing the bad guys is the whole
 point.

 Deborah, the phophet and priestess, a sort of Jewish Britannia,
 foretells that all will be well if the  Israelites rebel against the
 Canaanite Sisera, meaning that the Canaanites will be resoundingly
 slaughtered. She leads them to a confrontation on Mount Tabor in which
 both sides say yar-boo-sucks  (more or less), then the Israelites
 slaughter the Canaanites resoundingly, with buckets of blood as
 prophesied. Barak does his old dad Abinoam proud by leading the
 slaughter. Jael nails the escaping  Sisera's head to the floor and is
 hailed as a model of virtue for all time.  The whole thing is static,
 like a masque or even like a mummers' play. The battle and Jael's murder
 of Sisera are narrated after the event.

 This performance in St George's, Hanover Square, was part of the London
 Handel Festival. The London  Handel Choir was energetic, perhaps a bit
 workmanlike, though they were on top of the cracking  eight-part choral
 composition. The orchestra was similarly in control if a bit lacking in
 excitement.

 Franzita Whelan was a suitably statuesque and scary Deborah, nicely
 contrasted with Joanne Lunn as a sweet-toned girly Jael. There was an
 interesting nose-to-nose by the counter-tenors: James Bowman in the
 heroic role of Barak was all technique and almost no voice, and highly
 effective in the smallish space of St George's; Clint van der Linde as
 the villain Sisera (presumably a relative of Tolemeo in Guilio Cesare)
 had a sweet voice and almost no impact. James Rutherford, stepping in at
 the last minute as Abinoam, had a forceful presence even though he is
 young enough to be James Bowman's son and was obviously reading his
 music some of the time.