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An Oratorio
by
George Frideric
Handel
Libretto
Thomas Morell
Co-produced
by
English National
Opera and Welsh National Opera
Conductor
Nicholas
Kraemer
Director
Katie Mitchell
Jephtha
Mark Padmore
Storgé
Susan Bickley
Iphis
Sarah Tynan
Hamor
Robin Blaze
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London
Coliseum
English
National Opera
12 May - 15 June 2005 |
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Handel
wrote Jephtha,
his sublime final oratorio,
in 1751, when his health and
sight were failing. The story
is taken from Chapter XI of
the Book of Judges. An Israelite
General, begged by his people
to lead them in fighting their
Ammonite oppressors, promises
God that he will sacrifice
the first living thing he
sees if he is granted victory.
That turns out to be his beautiful
daughter Iphis, whom, ignoring
the sincere protestations
of her fiancé, mother
and the chorus of Israelites,
he is fully prepared to kill
to keep his promise. The Old
Testament version has a presumptuous
Jephtha punished by an angry
deity. In Thomas Morrell's
libretto, a New Testament
overlay adds an angel who
arrives as merciful deus ex
machina, just in the nick
of time, to commute Iphis's
sentence to a life of dedication
to God and a "pure and
virgin-state for ever".
The story closely parallels
Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis,
Jacob and Isaac, and was later
echoed in Idomeneo.
It is difficult to stage an
oratorio, to add action to
a score that was not intended
to be visual, in a way that
enhances rather than detracts
from such beautiful music.
It is also difficult to make
sense in 2005 of a story of
divine intervention, fate,
hubris and human sacrifice
whose subtleties (including
Morell's theological gloss)
may have resonated more immediately
with an Enlightenment audience.
Katie Mitchell's full staging,
a revived co-production between
the Welsh and English National
Opera, is an intelligent and
bold attempt, and largely
succeeds. She highlights the
human agony and moral ambiguity
of the oratorio in a way that
fits Handel's profoundly personal
music - the cinematic set
(a sepia 1940s bombed-out
hotel, with each scene opening
and closing through a camera
lens) and the personified
deities (Jephtha's fatal vow
is dictated to him by a whispering
angel with fluffy wings, who
reappears to save Iphis from
death) leave the audience
questioning whether the repeated
references to fate ("It
must be so", "Whatever
is, is right") are really
correct. Is Jephtha at fault
for stubborn adherence to
a vow (that was in any event
fairly ambiguous), or is he
to be commended for carrying
out God's will and keeping
his promises?
The principal fault of Mitchell's
staging is the depiction of
Iphis in the third act as
a reluctant lamb being dragged
to the slaughter, where the
music and libretto suggest
that she is her father's daughter,
serenely accepting her fate
without questioning God's
purposes. Ultimately, the
pushing and pulling between
all the characters became
tiresome. However, the singing
and the orchestral playing
of this magisterial music
is superb, and it did not
matter that on opening night
Sarah Tynan's intonation strayed
a little, Susan Bickley was
occasionally muffled by the
chorus, and the orchestra
was out of synch once or twice.
That may be the price of a
full staging of an oratorio.
Maya Lester |
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