ROLLE: Thirza und ihre Sohne.(Review)

ROLLE: Thirza und ihre Sohne [] Schmithusen, Wohlgemuth; Wessel, Schafer, Mammel, Abele; Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert, Max. 2000. Text, no translation. Capriccio 10 868/69 (2)

This world-premiere recording of Johann Heinrich Rolle's "musical drama" Thirza und ihre Sohne proves to be a very pleasant surprise. Rolle (1716-85) devised this hybrid form, which has operatic ambitions -- Rolle includes extensive stage directions -- but which was created specifically for a concert series. The subject of the libretto by August Hermann Niemeyer is the oppression of the Israelites by the Syrian king Epiphanes, who engages in a battle of wills with the Jewess Thirza. One by one, Thirza's seven sons are forced to choose between death and renunciation of their God. At Thirza's urging, all choose martyrdom, much to the outrage of Epiphanes. Unlike Handel's Judas Maccabeus, which features the chorus in a large-scale view of the same era in Old Testament history, Rolle and Niemeyer focus on the personal drama of the steadfast mother, the vengeful king and Chryses, the conflicted royal confidant. The piece is through-composed, with recitatives flowing seamlessly into arias, and in one case following right into a duet. Stylistically, Rolle prefigures the more direct emotional lines of Mozart rather than harking back to the formality of Handel. There is little in the way of vocal fireworks; in fact, the only stretches of coloratura occur, significantly, when Thirza and Chryses affirm their Judaism.

From the opening chorus of Syrian triumph, the listener is completely engaged, both by Rolle's intricate, tuneful music and by the vigorous sound of Das Kleine Konzert and the Rheinische Kantorei, under the direction of Hermann Max. Both orchestra and chorus remain strong throughout, and the soloists evidently have been directed to give as much attention to dramatic purpose as to ...