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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
 

Handel, Jephta : Soloists,Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. Choeur de l’Opera National de Bordeaux.Conductor: Jane Glover.Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. 13.6.2010. (JMI)

New production Opera National de Bordeaux in co-production with Opera National du Rhin

Direction: Jonathan Duverger and Jean-Marie Villégier.

Sets: Jean-Marie Abplanalp.

Costumes: Patrice Cauchetier.

Lighting: Patrick Méeüs.

Cast:

Jephta: Paul Agnew.

Storgé: Ann Hallenberg.

Iphis: Katherine Whyte,

Hamor: Iestyn Davis.

Zebul: Andrew Foster Williams.

Angel: Suzana Ograjensek.



Production Picture © Guillame Bonnaud

Bordeaux’s opera season comes to an end with this infrequently seen work by Handel which, along with with Jenůfa, provided the year's highlights for many. Happily, both works brought a brilliant finale to the season. Jephta is Handel's  last oratorio and represents his last major work, since the progressive blindness that afflicted him was already present during the work's composition. It meant that he would compose nothing else of importance in the last 7 years of his life.

Jephta's plot is taken from the Bible, the Book of Judges, and concerns the vow made by the Israeli leader Jephta, whopromises to sacrifice to Jehovah the first human he meets, if God grants him victory over the Ammonite tribes. Like Idomeneo, Mozart's  King of Crete, Jephta first meets his daughter Iphis on his victorious return, although ultimately heaven intervenes and asks only a vow of celibacy and dedication to God from her instead of death. Thus poor, innocent Iphis's life is saved, although it  might well turn out a little dull. Musically, Jephta contains magnificent choral passages, among Handel's  very best, together with some very rich orchestration. In short, this is a masterpiece which it is good to see in revival.

These days Handel's oratorios, including Messiah, are often performed on stage, and they are invariably difficult for directors because of the static nature inherent in the oratorio form. Bordeaux offered a co-production with Strasbourg, where it was premiered last year, by Jonathan Duverger and Jean-Marie Villégier, both men with long theatrical careers who made a remarkable job of it.

They use a simple setting of wooden walls at the back of the stage, with a top floor for the chorus backed by a large stained glass window. We are in a church but Duverger and Villegier also manage to show, with some subtle changes of atrezzo, the different locations of the action. They make a good use of extras, dressed in black, who the give the  oratorio give  , and the action is moved to the time of the English Puritans in America, showing some parallels between the Puritans and the ancient Israelites.

Musical direction was entrusted to the English conductor Jane Glover, who has become a regular presence at Bordeaux opera in recent years. Her reading was very good, effective and even quite brilliant here and there. While Ms Glover does not quite belong among the very top ranks of Baroque conductors, she is  always very reliable and a very appropriate conductor of this music. She drew a remarkable performance from Bordeaux orchestra, with a bright, compact sound, much better than in previous years.

The protagonist, the Israelite Warrior Jephta, was British tenor Paul Agnew, whose stylistic suitability to the Baroque is well known to all opera lovers, though his vocal quality is possibly not as great. The great  surprise of the afternoon however,  came from Canadian soprano Katherine Whyte in the role of Iphis, Jephta's unfortunate daughter. Whenever I see  a young and unknown singer advertised in Bordeaux in an important part, my interest always increases since Thierry Fouquet, the house director, has a real talent for  discovering young voices. (In this regard, I would recommend Bordeaux's  riadne auf Naxos next season, where there are two very important singers who first came to prominence in this theatre -  Elza Van den Heever and Heidi Melton). Returning to Jephta, Katherine Whyte was a delicious Iphis, with a beautiful voice and  a real discovery for this kind of role. Unfortunately, her high notes, although well projected, do not have quite the quality of her middle range but  if she is careful in the choice of her roles, she will have a very bright future ahead.

The Swedish mezzo soprano Ann Hallenberg made a great interpreter of Storgé, Jephta’s wife and Iphis’s mother. This singer is a real guarantee of quality in this repertoire and she  actually has very few rivals in the baroque world: she is one of the best, if not the absolute best, in this role as in so many others. The English countertenor Iestyn Davis was a very good Hamor,   Iphis' fiancé, who finally loses her to God. He confirmed the excellent impression he left in Handel’s Theodora last October at Madrid's Teatro Real. Andrew Foster Williams was a sound and well chosed Zebul, Jephta's brother,  while Suzana Ograjensek sang the role of the Angel; sadly, with little voice interest, either in volume or timbre

 

The house was sold out and the audience showed great enthusiasm for  all the singers, for Jane Glover and the orchestra.

José M Irurzun

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