The Znojmo Music Festival will present Juditha Triumphans, an oratorio previously unknown in the Czech Republic

18 June 2024, 1:00
The Znojmo Music Festival will present Juditha Triumphans, an oratorio previously unknown in the Czech Republic

The twentieth annual Music Znojmo festival is subtitled "Music and Victory". For the first time in the festival's history, the organisers will present two operas in their own production, three annual concerts charting the history of the event, and a concert on the water or in a straw amphitheatre. The festival will also feature a performance of Juditha Triumphans, an oratorio unknown in the Czech Republic.

The highlight of this year's Music Znojmo programme will be Antonio Vivaldi's dramatic oratorio Juditha Triumphans, which is hugely popular around the world but still overlooked in the Czech Republic. "Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, Juditha Triumphans, tells in its own unique way the dramatic Old Testament story of a Hebrew widow who saves her nation from destruction through trickery. However, it is more of an oratorical thriller, with sex and violence lurking beneath its spiritual veneer. Vivaldi cast all the characters - both male and female - in strictly female voices, as if forgetting the stereotypical notion of relationships between men and women and exposing the characters' actions in all their purity and directness," says the opera's director, Tomáš Ondřej Pilař. The festival will run from 10 to 28 July 2024.

"Juditha Trimphans is a beautiful oratorio with a dramatic plot. Antonio Vivaldi wrote works for student settings, specifically for the girls' orphanage Ospedale della Pietà, where he worked. This Venetian institute had an excellent choir and orchestra, and all the solos and chorus are cast with female voices only, as was the case in the first performance in 1716. The audience can also look forward to a wealth of atypical sounds and musical instruments," says Artistic Director and conductor Roman Válek.

The oratorio, based on a text by Giacomo Cassetti from 1716, is written for five soloists, orchestra and choir. The story takes place at the time when King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria sends his army, led by General Holofernes, to fight against Israel. The army besieges the town of Bethulia, where a young Jewish widow, Judith, pleads with the general for mercy. Holofernes falls in love with her, but falls asleep after a heady feast. Judith kills him in his sleep, escapes, and returns in triumph to Bethulia.

The main role of Judith will be played by Dagmar Šašková, a contemporary Czech mezzo-soprano Baroque music star. As a soloist, she is currently working with the ensembles of the Centre for Baroque Music in Versailles, Akadêmia, Correspondances, Il Festino, La Fenice, La Rêveuse, Le Concert brisé, Les Paladins, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Sagittarius and also with the Prague ensemble Musica Florea.

The role of the Assyrian General Holofernes is played by a Swedish opera star, mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman. Malena Ernman is not only active in the world of classical music, but also loves singing chansons, pop and rock. She has performed on a number of important stages - such as the Opera Paris, Staatsoper Berlin, Theater an der Wien, Oper Frankfurt, etc. She has collaborated with some leading conductors (G. Dudamel, D Barenboim) and ensembles (Stockholm Royal Symphonic Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra).

Oratorio based on a text by Giacomo Cassetti from 1716 for 5 soloists, orchestra and choir.

Première 25 July 2024 at the Domeček in Znojmo.

Cast:

Juditha (mezzo-soprano), young widow - Dagmar Šašková
Holofernes (mezzo-soprano), Assyrian general - Malena Ernman
Vagaus (soprano), Holofernes' squire - Doubravka Součková
Abra (soprano), Juditha's maid - Maya Amir
Ozias (mezzo-soprano), high priest of Bethulia Monika Jägerová

Director: Tomáš Ondřej Pilař
Conductor: Roman Válek
Orchestra and choir: Czech Ensemble Baroque

Festival photo archive

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