“Virtue only makes a monarch great”: Butt and the OAE celebrate Handel's Solomon

Solomon stands out among Handel’s 18 oratorios, not only for its quality but also for its resources, which spread right across the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Double Chorus (16 singers in each of choirs one and two, widely separated to the sides of the platform), and a large Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. There are two each of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets, plus organ, harpsichord and timpani (“kettledrums” might be the more Handelian term), with a string band of five each of first and second violins, three violas and three cellos, and two double basses. Handel frequently makes spectacular use of these forces, especially when the horns and trumpets are used (which is only after the first of the work’s three acts). 

The work tells the story of the biblical King Solomon, with emphasis on the monarch’s leadership qualities. So it is more celebratory than dramatic, especially in the outer acts. In Act 1 we learn of the dedication of the new Temple, and the King’s virtue, devoutness and happy marriage (his multiple wives and concubines in the Bible go unremarked in this libretto). Act 3 portrays Solomon’s kingdom through descriptions of a masque presenting its splendours to the visiting Queen of Sheba. Only Act 2 has more overt drama, with the tale of Solomon’s wisdom in resolving a dispute between two women both claiming to be the mother of the same infant.

There was a strong team of lead vocal soloists. Soprano Nardus Williams sang three roles – Solomon’s Queen, First Woman and the Queen of Sheba – and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston was Solomon. Tenor Hugo Hymas was Zadok, Solomon’s High Priest and Florian Störtz (bass-baritone) sang the Levite. The men are used less than we might expect in a long oratorio, neither sings in any of the concerted items and their music is not always the strongest. But both displayed great skill, not least in some rapid melisma singing.

The casting of a mezzo-soprano as Solomon replicates Handel’s choice when the work was written in 1748. He cast (as often) a singer from the Italian opera in London, mezzo Caterina Galli who would have been familiar in heroic ‘trouser roles’. Helen Charlston nodded to this in her attire, austere black jacket and trousers, hair pulled back, no jewellery. In a similar nod to semi-staging, Nardus Williams added a regal long white cape to her long black dress when she became the Queen of Sheba. Charlston’s formidable singing had all the power and authority it needed for the legendary King, softening beautifully for his many gracious moments. Williams too did justice to each of her three roles, especially touching in her despair as First Woman, the true mother of the disputed child.

Conductor John Butt, in a pre-performance interview, spoke of the many dance elements in the score and relished them in his performance, the OAE responding athletically to his direction. The woodwinds were as outstanding as usual, the flutes impersonating nightingales, the Baroque oboes adding tang to their chirruping in the opening Sinfonia of Act 3 – at a tempo suggesting this familiar Arrival of the Queen of Sheba was a very hasty one. But the choruses dominate this oratorio and the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment were excellent, especially thrilling in the antiphonal writing deploying the two choirs to superb effect. A glory from 18th-century Britain, gloriously done.