Attending a performance of Jephtha by Harry Christophers' Sixteen at the Barbican yesterday evening turned my mind to the odd relationship that Glyndebourne had with Handel. For it was Jephtha that was to be the first performance of a Handel piece at Glyndebourne in 1966. And that production put paid to any future hope that the great German born Englishman would be represented in the Glyndebourne repertoire - and indeed he did not return for another 30 years with the celebrated production of Theodora in 1996.
And when you consider that during the intervening years remarkable work was done in the Baroque arena by two great men in partnership, Peter Hall and Raymond Leppard, notably with Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and Cavalli's Calisto, it is not much of a stretch to imagine that they might have combined successfully to have tackled Handel. And given that Gerald Coke, who amassed the world's greatest private collection of Handel material, was the Chairman of the Glyndebourne Arts Trust through much of that period, there might have been an inbuilt bias towards performing the composer's works.
Well the fact is that the Jephtha was a disaster! The "production" was imported from Hamburg and was one of the great Günther Rennert's less fine hours. And the conductor was the heavy handed Leopold Ludwig. The counter-tenor role of Hamor was taken by a baritone, a musical nonsense - this fact alone is telling enough!
Of course there were redeeming features most notable of which was the towering performance in the title role of Richard Lewis. His time stopping singing of Waft her angels still haunts me. The Iphis was Heather Harper, and in the tiny role of the Angel was a debutante Margaret Price.........and of course the famous Glyndebourne Chorus shone blazingly in the choral moments.
But this production cast a dark shadow. We discussed subsequently on numerous occasions the possibility of Peter and Raymond undertaking a Handel opera. But they never found a solution to what at that time was considered to be an insoluble problem! And then Peter Sellars came along with his Orlando in ART in 1981 and Nicholas Hytner with his Xerxes in 1985 at ENO - this was like the discovery of penicillin, or a cure for cancer! And so the world changed for Handel. People may question my perception of the chronology but for what it is worth that is my take on it!
And so in 1996 after 30 years of Handelian drought the glorious Peter Sellars production of Theodora broke the ice and of course productions of other Handel pieces at Glyndebourne have followed. A side note - neither Theodora nor Jephtha are operas, but two dramatic oratorios, amongst the last works of the composer who was already blind in one eye as he finished Jephtha and never wrote another note........
And last night at the Barbican it was very much the oratorio character of Jephtha that dominated - and perhaps that was a pity. But we had some stylish singing from a distinguished cast, notably from the eternally refreshing Sophie Bevan as a delicious Iphis, and the indispensable Susan Bickley as Storgè. It is totally unfair to compare James Gilchrist as Jephtha with Richard Lewis - I just can not get Richard's performance out of my head after 48 years! Gilchrist was splendid - he is a fine artist.........
Harry Christophers never falls short of the highest standards - a wonderful choral group of 18 (there were two additional sopranos including the Angel) - and a band of the quality that you can only find in Europe (yes, we are still in Europe!)
Thats all for now!
Portrait of Handel by Balthasar Denner c.1728
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