For the last four years, the Canberra Choral Society has presented an annual Handel oratorio performance, under the leadership of established Australian countertenor Tobias Cole. This year, a rather grander offering comes in the form of a staged version of Handel’s oratorio Jephtha, under the name of The Vow, in the Playhouse at the Canberra Theatre Centre, more commonly a venue for straight drama. It comes under the aegis of yet another new Australian musical entity “Handel in the Theatre”, which, at least on this occasion, includes a Chorus from the Canberra Choral Society along with a small group of musicians. The staging is directed by Cole, while the role of conductor falls to Brett Weymark, best known as Director of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. In this latter role, Weymark had already conducted an excellent Jepththa in 2009, in standard oratorio style.
Jephtha, like many of Handel’s dramatic English oratorios, is eminently stageable, and indeed there have been at least two such presentations in Australia, in Brisbane in 1985 and Melbourne in 1989. This version is Handel almost intact (lacking the chorus “When his loud voice in thunder spoke”, Zebul’s air “Freedom now” and Jeptha’s air “Deeper and deeper still”) until the climax; after “Theme sublime of endless praise” the curtain fell, depriving us of three more airs and the lovely quintet “All that is in Hamor mine”. Some of the final chorus was delivered after the curtain rose for the final bows. As is so often the case, the three-part design of the composer was rejected in favour of a two part performance, with an interval between “In glory high” and Iphis’s “Hail glorious conqueror”. This meant that the curtain fell just as Jephtha’s face froze in horror as he understands what his welcome by Iphis means in terms of his vow, a reasonable dramatic choice. This was rather undercut by a singalong in which the audience was encouraged to join in on a C of E hymn to the tune of “See the conquering hero” (Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus). Some people enjoyed this.
The staging was really quite minimal, involving few props, and consisting more of moving people round the stage in appropriate dramatic ways; the chorus performed without books, and arranged themselves in tableaux at various points. The setting as indicated by the costumes suggested the 1940s or 50s – perhaps referring to World War II; said costumes for the chorus and principals were unrelentingly drab, with rather a large number of brown cardigans and the like. Jephtha and Zebul wore very vaguely militaristic overcoats, while Hamor looked more like an accountant, sporting a three-piece suit. Iphis wore a girly get-up involving a Peter Pan collar and a pleated skirt, her mum more formal in a blue suit. In contrast to all this, the Angel was a rather blinding vision of bling and glitter, resembling a 1940s-50s lounge singer in a dubious nightclub.