BWW Reviews: THEODORA--With Daniels, Roschmann and English Concert--Scores a Touchdown on Super Bowl Sunday at Carnegie

It wasn't Theodora, but the Carnegie Hall audience, who went wild on Sunday at the performance by the English Concert of Handel's rarely heard THEODORA.

With the modern rebirth of interest in all-things Handel, why has THEODORA remained a sometimes-thing? Well, let's face it: It's not GIULIO CESARE or even RADAMISTO (last year's Baroque extravaganza from the English Concert and Harry Bicket), where you come for the thrills of florid singing, with brilliant coloratura. No, THEODORA is a very different animal--and it's easy to see why it was a failure on its first go-around, at Covent Garden in London in 1750. With its tale of Christian martyrs [in a Protestant country, of course] and stately score, this was not the Handel that had taken London by storm.

Handel's favorite oratorio

Here's the story in a nutshell: Theodora refuses to worship Venus and Flora and is condemned to serve as a prostitute in the temple of Venus. She's not afraid to die--but fears only the violation of her faith and chastity. The Roman soldier Didymus, a secret Christian, tries to help her escape, is captured and then sentenced to death. Theodora offers to take his place--and (no happy ending here) the governor has them both executed. Cheery stuff.

Yet, Handel frequently said that this was his favorite oratorio and he would get no argument from concert-goers on Sunday. This is an intimate piece, an oratorio with five soloists, an early music chamber orchestra and a small chorus. As with most Handel, it was long, but despite the basically static nature of the piece, the music flew thanks to the vocal prowess on display from German soprano Dorothea Roschmann as Theodora, American countertenor David Daniels as Didymus and British mezzo Sarah Connolly as Theodora's friend Irene. The wonderful Choir of Trinity Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner, filled a variety of functions and was the fabric that held the action together and the musicians of the English Concert, under the firm yet sensitive leadership of Harry Bicket, know how to make this kind of music thrilling.

Treasurable soloists

Roschmann is treasured by many opera-lovers but she took some time to warm up on Sunday. (I guess with four hours of opera, it didn't come to much, percentage-wise.) Yet, she was a model of dignity befitting the character she portrayed. The richness of her voice was mesmerizing in Act I's "Angels, ever bright and fair," where Theodora learns her fate, and in the simplicity of "With darkness deep as is my woe" in Act II.

Daniels, who took part in the Glyndebourne performances that helped bring the oratorio back from obscurity, was in fine voice as Didymus, the Roman soldier who loves Theodora. Being so well known for those performances, however, he was competing with things past for many in the audience, who knew the recording, if not the original performances directed by Peter Sellars (with the legendary singing of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson). Nevertheless, I particularly liked his work in "Kind heav'n," with its expressive (and impressive) appoggiaturas, and in the last act's "Streams of Death," as he and Roschmann looked forward to the joys of Heaven.

In almost a whisper

The mezzo role of Irene has two of the best known arias from the piece, but Connolly was sometimes stolid in her singing. In Act I, though, she sang exquisitely, in almost a whisper, in the da capo aria, "As with rosy steps," where the orchestra illustrates the rosy steps steadily ascending like the rising sun, including a wonderful cello part for Joseph Crouch. She also showed impressive dignity in Act III's "Lord to thee each night and day." Austrian-American tenor Kurt Streit, as Didymus's friend, Septimius, did some sweet yet noble singing, particularly in the famous tenor aria, "Dread the fruits of Christian folly," but Welsh bass-baritone Neal Davies, as Valens, the villain of the piece, sounded dry, even though he had the Handel style well in hand.

The fine singing of Trinity Wall Street

For my taste, some of the evening's most powerful singing came not from any of the soloists, but from the superb singers of Trinity Wall Street. They finely differentiated the various characters they portrayed-whether the Christians of "Come Mighty Father" and "He saw the lovely youth" (which Handel considered some of his best choral music, with its marvelous counterpoint) or the Romans of "How strange their ends."

THEODORA's libretto by Thomas Morell was adapted from a novel, "The Martyrdom of Theodora and of Didymus" by Robert Boyle, who is better known for his early law of thermodynamics: "for a gas at constant temperature, its pressure and volume are inversely proportional." Maybe the librettist should have looked instead to Isaac Newton, known for his laws of motion--"a body in motion tends to stay in motion"--which might have given Theodora (and those early English audiences) a happier ending than the beautiful lament with which the composition ends.

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