Songs of Judith
Beyond revenge
Jacquet de la Guerre – Strozzi – Rameau – Guignon – Bembo – Leonarda – Koskinen – Yokoyama
Hehku Collective:
Christina Herresthal, mezzo-soprano
Claire Moncharmont, harp
FiBO Players:
Irma Niskanen, violin
Anne Pekkala, violin
Johanna Randvere, viola da gamba
Anna-Maaria Oramo, harpsichord, mezzo-soprano
Aleksi Barrière, text and direction (Turku)
Aliisa Neige Barrière, narrator (Turku)
In the middle of the 17th century in Venice, the capital of the opera, there were two young composers, Barbara Strozzi and Antonia Bembo, in the beginning of their careers – as singers, as that was the only path available to them. Bembo left for France in search of new opportunities, and her professional life in the salons arranged by women as well as in convents reflects two other of her contemporaries: Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, known at court as a harpsichordist, and Isabella Leonarda, who found a safe space in a convent, where she could compose also secular music. These four remarkably versatile composers, whose biographies and influences speak of both the history of music as well as the status of women during the Baroque, form the backbone of this concert programme. In their works, we experience how the female voice has been used in order to raise the expression of desire and pain to aesthetical enjoyment, and how they as champions of women’s rights had to develop a relationship to the voyeurism of their time. Jacquet de la Guerre’s cantata Judith brings another option to the table: the revenge of the woman against her oppressors. But is the story of revenge liberating after all?
The works by Strozzi, Bembo, Jacquet de la Guerre and Leonarda are contextualised by the miniatures by the male composers Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Pierre Guignon. The Baroque music is complemented by two new works commissioned for this programme: Juha T. Koskinen’s miniature She who saw things to come tells about the Czech mythological witch Libuše, who was forced to relinquish power because of her gender. The work is a sketch created from the material for Koskinen’s and FiBO’s next joint project, the musical theatre performance Earthrise, combining new music with Baroque music in its performances in the Almi Hall at the Finnish National Opera in October 2024. At the end of the concert we also hear Mioko Yokoyama’s Postlude, a response to Jacquet de la Guerre’s Prelude in A minor which begins the concert.
At the Turku Music Festival, the programme is performed as a multi-voiced, visualised narrative with text and direction by Aleksi Barrière. In this version, the biographies of the female composers are explored through their portraits. The picture history reveals the kinds of roles they have been forced to play and compose.
Duration: 75 min (no intermission)