HANDEL
Theodora
Gabrieli Consort &
Players/McCreesh, with Susan Gritton, Susan Bickley, Robin Blaze, Paul Agnew,
Neal Davies & Angus
Smith
DG Archiv 469 061-2
[76+60+47]
Crotchet
The only Handel oratorio set in Christian times, this poignant account of
martyrdom was first heard in 1750 at Covent Garden and it is given complete
here as in that performance. It is based upon The Martyrdom of Theodora
& Didymus (1687) by Robert Boyle, scientist (he of Boyle's Law!),
that based in turn upon St Ambrose's lives of admirable virgins (AD 377).
Boyle wrote it to inspire upper-class youth and show that women can be heroines
equally as men! The librettist Morell adapted the novel to a 'sentimental
drama', a genre which is epitomised here by the protagonists' unswerving
devotion to their cause, vying with each other to be the most self-sacrificing.
The complexity of choices faced by ordinary people in real life is represented
by the repressive Roman President's friend Septimius who is swayed from loyalty
towards sympathy for the victims.
Theodora created a furore recently at Glyndebourne in a harrowing production
by Peter Sellars, who updated it and had the victims killed by lethal injection
with all the paraphernalia of USA executions. This studio recording distances
it inevitably, but it remains affecting and is graced with numerous tender
arias of great beauty and many fine choruses. The stylish accompaniments
are given transparency and rhythmic life by Paul McCreesh and All
Saints, Tooting provides the right ambience.
The score (King's Music) has been newly edited by Timothy Roberts and Clifford
Bartlett and all modern scholarship has been brought to bear upon this account
with original instruments. A second, cut version of the ending of Part II
Scene 2 (unbelievably without With Darkness deep) is given as an Appendix.
The performance and recording are exemplary throughout, with leading singers
all in top form. Many articles and full texts in a 100 page booklet. Recommended
without reservation.
Peter Grahame Woolf
