Powerful intensity & youthful vigour: Benjamin Hulett & Helen Charlston in Handel’s Jephtha at Wimbledon International Music Festival

Thomas Hudson – John Beard, tenor who created the role of Jephtha for Handel

Handel: Jephtha: Benjamin Hulett, Helen Charlston, Rowan Pierce, James Hall, Academy Choir Wimbledon, Academy Baroque Players, Matthew Best; Wimbledon International Music Festival at Sacred Heart Church
9 November 2024

A finely satisfying performance from a strong young cast who really lifted Handel and Morell’s tragedy off the page

Since the beginnings of the festival, the Wimbledon-based Academy Choir has a tradition of opening Wimbledon International Music Festival. This year was no different, so on Saturday 9 November 2024 at Sacred Heart Church, Edge Hill, Wimbledon, Matthew Best conducted Academy Choir Wimbledon and Academy Baroque Players, leader Alison Bury, in Handel’s Jephtha with Benjamin Hulett as Jephtha, Helen Charlston as Storge, Rowan Pierce as Iphis, James Hall as Hamor, Conrad Chatterton as Zebul and Clementine Thompson as the Angel. And the concert was preceded by a pre-concert talk by the eminent Handelian authority, Ruth Smith.

Jeptha is not the longest of Handel’s oratorios, but it is still substantial and the evening’s performances used the version Handel and his assistant J.C. Smith created for later performances, with a shortened, more compact ending, the final scene losing the arias for Zebul, Storge and Hamor.

I have probably seen as many staged performances of Jeptha (WNO and ENO, Buxton Festival, Covent Garden) as concert performances but I still find the work makes a profoundly satisfying concert experience. Thomas Morell’s use of Greek tragedy in the drama particularly the links to Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis makes for a rewardingly sufficient structure for Handel’s music without worrying about extraneous details of staging. Sacred Heart Church, however, was not an idea venue and the sight lines to the soloists (on a platform to the side of the orchestra) were challenging at best. However, if you could get in a position to see them properly then there was much reward as Benjamin Hulett and Helen Charlston, in particular, gave performances which really lifted off the page and conveyed the essence of the drama.

Hulett was a vibrant and youthful sounding Jephtha, his opening scenes ardent and full of strength, celebrating his victory in Act Two with decisive vigour. The moment when Jephtha encounters his daughter after the victory was delineated by Hulett with vivid attention to music and text, his focused account of ‘Open thy marble jaws’ powerful and moving. In his long accompanied recitative, ‘Deeper and deeper still’, very much the emotional heart of the work, Hulett moved from interior contemplation to powerful declamation, the urgent moments really gripping until the music stumbles to a halt miraculously. At the opening to Act Three, Hulett was moving and stylish in a lovely account of ‘Waft her angels’ which crowned a finely intelligent account of the role.

Helen Charlston’s first appearance as Storge established itself with a beautifully intimate account of ‘In gentle murmurs will I mourn’, yet ‘Scenes of horror’ was vividly compelling, particularly when preceded with such a strong recitative. In Act Two, her ‘First perish thou’ had all the intensity and focus one could desire, with an account of ‘Let other creatures die’ contrasting anger with tenderness to striking effect.

Rowan Pierce established Iphis’ youthful charm from the first moments of her opening aria, and this continued in her second aria in Act One which had a lovely perkiness to it. In Act Two, she was at first ardent and stylish, welcoming her father with joy. Her aria in Act Two after receiving the tragic news was austerely moving, yet warmed by Pierce’s vocal tone, and her Act Three farewell had a lovely simplicity to it.

As Hamor, James Hall brought style and rich timbre to his music, and his account of the battle that opens Act Two had a nice confident ring, continuing with an account of his aria sung with a terrific sense of style. His aria offering himself in Iphis’ stead saw Hall singing with a nice decisiveness and at terrific speed. 

Conrad Chatterton’s Zebul was full of vigour, his opening accompanied recitative remarkably trenchant, followed by his first aria sung with confident style. As the Angel, Clementine Thompson sang with a lovely clarity and directness.

The oratorio is notable for Handel’s imaginative use of ensembles. Iphis and Hamor have two duets, the first was full of elaborations and ornaments, the two singers delighting in the music. The second, almost at the very end of the oratorio, was touching in its simplicity. The remarkable quartet in Act Two was made strong yet moving by Hulett, Charlston, Hall and Chatterton, and the final solo moment in the whole work was the short but telling quintet.

Jephtha is perhaps not one of the great choral oratorios, though there are terrific moments for the chorus at various points. Each act concludes with a large-scale chorus. At the end of Act One, the choir’s rousing performance was not quite a match for the vivid brilliance of the two horns, bells upturned. At the end of Act Two, we had the powerful chorus with its stark reiterations of ‘Whatever is, is right’, proclaimed vividly by the singers, whilst at the end of the work the chorus is muted rejoicing. But perhaps the most important chorus is that of the priests in Act Three, ‘Doubtful fear’. A plea which brings forth the Angel, here the choir’s telling performance was really commensurate with the music’s dramatic importance.

The orchestra played with a lithe sense of style, much of the music light on its feet yet sober when necessary. Conductor Matthew Best kept the drama moving, so that the work flowed without any nasty gaps. His speeds were sometimes fleet, but never more than his soloists could accommodate, whilst his chorus (Best is music director of Academy Choir Wimbledon) were fully equal to the challenges.

This was a finely satisfying performance where all the soloists were clearly invested in the drama, and there was no sense of them singing to their scores. Handel and Morell’s tragedy really lifted off the page, aided and abetted by fine performances from chorus and orchestra.

In other terms, the concert was something of a challenge. I have already mentioned the sight lines, and by the end of the concert the church was starting to feel rather cold. Anthony Wilkinson, artistic director of the festival, is a great advocate for the project to create a new concert hall in Wimbledon [see the project website], and you can understand why.

It was also perhaps rather ambitious of the festival to begin a performance of a Handel oratorio at 8pm. This meant that the evening ended just shy of 11pm, and I noticed quite a few empty spaces in the hall as people slipped out. This was a shame, because those who failed to return after the interval missed out on the remarkable combination of powerful intensity and youthful vigour in Benjamin Hulett’s performance as Jephtha.