Sublime musicality (and pole dancing) in Handel’s ‘Theodora’

Theodora is a late Handel oratorio, implying a large role for the chorus, rather than just the recitatives and arias of his operas with a brief chorus at the end of the drama. That ending sees the death of the eponymous heroine and her beloved Didymus, whom she has converted to Christianity, and many of the choruses have a contemplative quality. Indeed the final one is more of a gentle lullaby, like Bach’s St Matthew Passion, which also ends in a minor key and 3/4 time.

It was Handel’s favourite, but flopped badly, and the librettist, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Morell, quoted the composer thus:“The Jews will not come to it because it is a Christian story; and the ladies will not come because it is a virtuous one.”

Indeed, the theme of Christian martyrdom was far removed from the Old Testament stories typical of Handel’s dramatic oratorios, and when they informed him that the theatre was almost empty, he merely responded, “Never mind; the music will sound better.” Some loved it, and Lord Shaftesbury wrote to a friend saying it was as beautiful a composition as ever Handel made: “The Town don’t like it at all,” he said, “but several excellent musicians think as I do.” They were right — it’s wonderful. There was, however, a second reason for the low audience figures; an earthquake about a week before the premiere in mid-March 1750 caused several of Handel’s usual fans to flee the city.

This new production by Katie Mitchell managed to suit the staging admirably to the music, though there were numerous empty seats in the Amphitheatre on opening night. Handel operas can sometimes seem unrelenting in their extensive recitative, but under the baton of Harry Bicket, an expert on baroque opera, the tempi were perfect and the singing outstanding. The strongly international cast was led by two Americans, Julia Bullock in the title role and Joyce DiDonato as her friend Irene, up against Hungarian-Romanian baritone Gyula Orendt as the Roman governor Valens, served by two senior officers, Polish counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orlinski as Didymus, and Ed Lyon as his friend Septimius. With the excellent chorus, and the young tenor Thando Mjandana as a very fine messenger, the performance came together beautifully.

Although Ms Mitchell and her team received some determined boos at the end, the staging worked very well. The setting was a Roman embassy, shown in a series of five rooms that slid sideways to reveal one or more of them, all lit from within rather than from the auditorium. Modern set designs (Chloe Lampard) were entirely suited to the purpose, starting in the kitchen where Theodora and Irene work, and featuring an entertainment room where astonishing pole dancers slid up, down and around two poles. This is said to be a feminist production, but to me it was simply modern, showing women having agency in themselves, well suiting an equality of the sexes in Christianity, whose saints are both male and female.

It was unabashedly modern, and if we’re going to stage these seventeenth century oratorios — which we certainly should — this was as fine an example as one might wish. I loved the slow-motion movement, and though the story may end with the death of the protagonists, there is an apotheosis which appeared all too real and down to earth — but no spoilers.

The Amphitheatre at Covent Garden should not remain depleted for much longer. This was truly compelling: the music, the singing… and those pole dancers!

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