Don’t mess with Judy
Gentileshci's Judith Slaying Holofernes
You’ve seen the image. A determined woman and her maid are holding a large hirsute man down as they energetically cut off his head. Slasher film material? Perhaps, but also the subject of noteworthy paintings by two Italian painters – Artemisia Gentileschi and Caravaggio. I’m not going to go into the details of the Old Testament story that inspired the paintings or delve into the Freudian symbolism some like to toss into the mix. The basics are Judith saves her city of Bethulia from the siege laid by Holofernes, a general of the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor. Judith gets him drunk and then clips off his head. Why discuss the tale at all? Because the blessed Antonio Vivaldi wrote a flat-out brilliant oratorio on the subject called Juditha Triumphans.
Vivaldi wrote four oratorios but only Juditha Triumphans survives. The work was written in 1716 while Vivaldi was filling in as choirmaster at the Venetian Ospedale della Pietà (Vivaldi was already in charge of the orchestra). The libretto was written by Giacomo Cassetti, a Venetian lawyer (or doctor) who penned a distinctly operatic book. Gone is the narrator familiar from other oratorios and the work’s action moves along in a more dramatic fashion.
Solid libretto yes, but it’s the knock your socks off music that make this work a keeper. Arias, lots of arias and some pretty stirring choruses along with some of Vivaldi’s best instrumental writing put Juditha to the top of my favorite Vivaldi list. The 1998 recording by Robert King and the King’s Consort on Hyperion is my overall favorite with Ann Murray, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Susan Bickley and Sarah Connolly. This was my first recording of the oratorio and it still holds up well. The instrumentalists of the Kings Consort really shine in the many obbligatti that weave their way around the voices in the arias.
Recently I’ve been loving a download-only version from RTSI Multimedia featuring a cast that includes Manuela Custer, Roberta Invernizzi, Guillemette Laurens, Sara Mingardo and Diego Fasolis leading I Barrocchisti. Invernizzi and Mingardo are stand-outs here and Fasolis’ forces deliver a rousing, virtuoso performance. You can find it at Amazon, eMusic and other download sites. Can’t find an actual CD though.
Here’s some Juditha moments from a performance featuring Manuela Custer and Karina Gauvin.
Karina Gauvin (Vagaus) sings the aria Matrona inimical, a bit of recitative and then Manuela Custer (Juditha) sings Quo cum Patriae me ducit amore:
More of the amazing Gauvin, this time in the aria Quamvis ferro et ense gravis:
Custer in the show-stopping Agitata infido flatu:
The gorgeous aria Veni, veni, me sequere, with chalumeau imitating a turtle-dove:
Pretty good, eh?
Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes
