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Theodora (Georg Friedrich Händel)
The librettist drew on ‘The Martyrdom of Theodora and Didymus' by Robert Boyle – more famous as a scientist. Boyle's sources were St Ambrose's ‘De Virginibus' and Corneille's verse tragedy ‘Théodore, Vierge et Martyr' (published 1646)
Handel cannot spare us the Roman feast, orgy and brothel because he is at pains to show that the early Christian martyrs were not stiff-necked exhibitionists. They rejected a hedonism that had become depraved and a godlessness that had descended into bestial cruelty.
The work is famous for its wonderful choruses, including ‘He saw the lovely youth' which Handel considered surpassed even his ‘Hallelujah Chorus'. There are also 2 sublime duets for soprano and counter-tenor and the famous aria ‘Angels Ever Bright and Fair'.
This powerful, emotionally shattering work shows the clash between the brutality and decadence of the late Roman Empire and the idealism of the early Christians. It is the tale of two martyrs during the persecution of Diocletian in 303. there are similarities to the martyrdom of St Cecilia and SS Perpetua and Felicitas.
The opera was unpopular when first given in London in 1749, only 4 years after the great Catholic rebellion, because it was thought to be too Catholic in its sympathies.