Seasonally appropriate, this was commissioned to celebrate o the Venetian victory over the Turks at Corfu. These newly insolent Turks should profit by the memory, or we may have to smite them afresh.
This piece is actually an allegory of the victory that Jim describes above. Literally, the plot comes from The Book of Judith in the Bible. Nebuchadnezzar dispatches his envoy, Holofernes who falls in love with Judith. She uses this an an opportunity to behead him, claiming a victory. The music was classic Vivaldi-a lot of string instruments with trumpets thrown in for good measure. I thought that the conductor looked like an Armani-clad priest, as he conducted the Venice Baroque Orchestra and it's all-female choir. Of all of the four singers, I thought that the heavyset blonde was the best. She really seemed to sing from the gut and the heart, while the others seemed to be "acting" more by their facial expressions. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I did the concert hall. Not sure if it is in Venice, but the scale would make sense. Thank you, Jim!
Seasonally appropriate, this was commissioned to celebrate o the Venetian victory over the Turks at Corfu. These newly insolent Turks should profit by the memory, or we may have to smite them afresh.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is actually an allegory of the victory that Jim describes above. Literally, the plot comes from The Book of Judith in the Bible. Nebuchadnezzar dispatches his envoy, Holofernes who falls in love with Judith. She uses this an an opportunity to behead him, claiming a victory. The music was classic Vivaldi-a lot of string instruments with trumpets thrown in for good measure. I thought that the conductor looked like an Armani-clad priest, as he conducted the Venice Baroque Orchestra and it's all-female choir. Of all of the four singers, I thought that the heavyset blonde was the best. She really seemed to sing from the gut and the heart, while the others seemed to be "acting" more by their facial expressions. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I did the concert hall. Not sure if it is in Venice, but the scale would make sense. Thank you, Jim!
ReplyDelete