This is based on the Book of Judith, a part of the Old Testament that may or may not be apocryphal, I can't be having with your religious debates, but I'm going to take it as such because it's kinda badass. The plot--which is basically the plot here--is that Assyrians are trying to fuck up Israel, but then this young widow, Judith, goes to beg mercy from the general, Holofernes; he falls in love with her and she ultimately beheads him when he's in a drunken stupor, breaking the back of the invaders. I feel like whoever wrote this didn't have a clear conception of how hard it would be to literally sever someone's head, as opposed to just cutting their throat, which would do the job just as well. This was written to celebrate a victory of the Republic of Venice against invaders, and at one point towards the end this is specifically spelt out, lest you should miss it.
Anyway, there's a really great Caravaggio painting of Holofernes' sorry end:
Yeah! I would characterize her expression as "annoyance at having to perform a mildly distasteful task that proved to be a little more difficult than expected." Whereas the old guy is just straight-up pissed. Good stuff.
This isn't actually an opera, or at least it wasn't originally; it's an oratorio, a musical composition that may have a loose story but is intended as a concert piece. But hey, operas are performed as concerts all the time, so why not the reverse?
Well, why not indeed? However, it must be noted, this really doesn't feel so much like an opera. The production I think does the best job I can imagine making it into one, but that only goes so far. In addition to the extremely thin plot, you'll notice that characters almost never speak to one another; often when this production has them do that, it's obvious that they're not actually talking to each other; they're just speaking non-dialogue lines at their interlocutor for no clear reason. It also adds a lot of background action, which makes sense, and mostly works, but...not always. There's one subplot which is definitely made up out of whole cloth where a woman who's either the wife or sweetheart of the priest Ozias (here just a regular resistance fighter) and who is being abused by the invaders. This mostly works okay, but there's one part in particular that's a bit weird: Judith and Holofernes are having their tête-à-tête when they're interrupted by the soliders outside singing a drinking song. That part's in the libretto, obviously, but what's not is them abusing this woman. If it were, Judith would make more of an effort to stop them, and Holofernes--if for no other reason than that he's trying to win Judith's favor--would intercede on the woman's behalf, but that wouldn't work with the music, so they just all just sort of go away as things continue. Hmmm.
This production--I did not mention--is set in World War II and involves nazis or something close to that, which works fine. In the youtube comments (this was an operavision thing, but it's expired at this point), people were complaining about that, but REALLY, the "original context" is a military action in what's now Italy that nobody remembers. I think there's nothing wrong with changing things up. All of the singers here are women, interestingly enough (the chorus is mixed-gender, but that was originally all-female too). Mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez shines in the title role, bringing grit and vulnerability as appropriate. But the whole cast is very good.
Still, you can't complain too much. It's hella great baroque music; what more do you want? And, really, even if it doesn't always totally work, it just seems more interesting to see it in opera form. Also, it's the first opera (I'm just going to treat it as such!) that I've ever seen in Latin, so that's pretty cool as well. Of the four oratorios Vivaldi wrote, this is the only one that isn't lost (a lot of Vivaldi's music is lost), which is a big shame.
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