Based on the Biblical tale of the young Israelite woman who cuts off the head of the barbarian invader Holofernes, Antonio Vivaldi’s sole surviving oratorio, “Juditha Triumphans,” was written to celebrate the 1716 victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks.
“Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie” (Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes), RV 644, is an oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, the only survivor of the four that he is known to have composed. Although the rest of the oratorio survives completely intact, the overture has been lost. The Latin libretto was written by Iacopo Cassetti based upon the Book of Judith.
The exact date of composition and performance of Juditha triumphans are not known, but the allegorical treatment of the Venetian defense of Corfu dominated public discussion in Venice throughout 1716. This work was an allegorical description of the victory of the Venetians (the Christians) over the Turks in August 1716. The work was commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu: in July 1716, the Turks had landed on Corfu and set siege to the island. The population resisted the occupation and, in August, Venice signed an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor. On 18 August, under the leadership of count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, the decisive battle was won and the Turks abandoned the island.
Although widely reported to have been performed at the Ospedale della Pietà in November 1716, the victorious General Schulenburg could not have been in the audience of any performance prior to January 3, 1717.
Score
All characters, male and female, were interpreted by women of the Ospedale della Pietà. They are:
Juditha, contralto, a young Bethulian widow
Holofernes, contralto, Assyrian general
Vagaus, soprano, eunuch, Holofernes’s squire
Abra, soprano, Juditha’s handmaid
Ozias, contralto, high priest of Bethulia
An all-female choir sings the parts of the Assyrian soldiers and of the Bethulian women. In the tradition of the Ospedale della Pietà, where some of the singers were trained to sing below the normal contralto range, the chorus is scored for SATB.
The string orchestra is augmented by timpani, 2 trumpets, mandolino, 4 theorbos, 5 “viole all’inglese” (viols), 1 viola d’amore, 2 recorders, 2 chalumeaux (soprano), “Clareni” (clarinet), 2 oboes, organ.
Plot
The Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar sends an army against Israel to demand overdue tributes. Under the leadership of the general Holofernes, the Assyrians lay siege to the town of Bethulia and are about to conquer it. The young Jewish widow Judith goes to him to implore mercy. He falls in love with her and she indulges him. After a rich banquet and having drunk much wine, Holofernes falls asleep. Judith beheads him, flees the enemy camp, and returns victorious to Bethulia.
Excerpts from the Book of Judith, Chapter 8:
[Judith speaks]: Listen to me, rulers of the people of Bethu′lia! What you have said to the people today is not right; you have even sworn and pronounced this oath between God and you, promising to surrender the city to our enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days. Who are you, that have put God to the test this day, and are setting yourselves up in the place of God among the sons of men? You are putting the Lord Almighty to the test—but you will never know anything! You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God, who made all these things, and find out his mind or comprehend his thought? No, my brethren, do not provoke the Lord our God to anger. For if he does not choose to help us within these five days, he has power to protect us within any time he pleases, or even to destroy us in the presence of our enemies. Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God; for God is not like man, to be threatened, nor like a human being, to be won over by pleading. Therefore, while we wait for his deliverance, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our voice, if it pleases him…. [11-17]
Judith said to them, “Listen to me. I am about to do a thing which will go down through all generations of our descendants. Stand at the city gate tonight, and I will go out with my maid; and within the days after which you have promised to surrender the city to our enemies, the Lord will deliver Israel by my hand. Only, do not try to find out what I plan; for I will not tell you until I have finished what I am about to do. [32-34]
Text courtesy of Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Bible verses are from the Revised Standard Version.
This essay was first published here in March 2022.
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The featured image is “Judith” (1892), by Jules Joseph Lefebvre, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.