Coreen Duffy will conduct ‘Judas Maccabeus’ Friday-Sunday

By Peter Alexander Nov. 13 at 5:55 p.m.

Seicento Baroque Ensemble is starting the concert season with a new conductor and a Handel oratorio that is likely new for many in the audience.

Coreen Duffy, newly hired as Seicento’s artistic director and as director of choral activities at the CU College of Music, is a specialist in Jewish choral music. She will conduct the singers of Seicento and an orchestra of Baroque period instruments in a performance of Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabeus. Performances will be Friday through Sunday in Longmont, Boulder and Denver (Nov. 15–17; details below).

Handel’s Judas Maccabeus was composed in 1746, the 18th of the composer’s remarkable output of 18 or 19 oratorios, depending on how you count them. Based on the historical event of the rebellion of the Jewish people against the Greek Seleucid Empire in the years 170–160 BCE, the libretto was written by Thomas Morell who wrote several oratorio texts for Handel.

The story of Judas Maccabeus is tied to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which celebrates the return of Jewish worship to the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the revolt. Eventually the revolt led to victory over the Greeks and their expulsion from Judea.

Handel wrote Judas Maccabeus at a time that his oratorios were losing their popularity. To revive his success, he wrote Judas Maccabeus to celebrate the 1746 victory of the English over the Scots at Culloden. To appeal to the British audience, the libretto stresses the military victory of the Jewish people, rather than the “The Festival of Lights” and the Hanukkah story of lamps that miraculously burned for eight days. The premieretook place at in London on April 1, 1747, nearly a year after the battle of Culloden.

The oratorio comprises 68 separate musical numbers organized in three acts, much like Messiah. It includes 17 choruses, as well as arias for the soloists who portray Judas Maccabeus, his brother Simon, a messenger and other characters in the story.

Because it never achieved the broad popularity of Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabeus is often regarded as secondary to the more famous work. However, it does contain one of Handel’s most popular choruses, “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes!” This chorus has been adapted several times, including a set of variations for cello and piano by Beethoven, a hymn tune, and a movement of Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs.

A performance of Judas Maccabeus is a major undertaking. Seicento will feature its full choir, four soloists—Alice Del Simone, soprano; Alexandra Colaizzi, mezzo-soprano; Javier Abreu, tenor; and James Robinson, bass—and an orchestra with local Baroque-instrument string players and a number of period wind-instrument specialists, most brought in from outside Boulder. 

Duffy links the oratorio firmly to the celebration of Hannukah. She has written of the upcoming performance, “The Jewish High Holy Day season (is) a time of intense contemplation, when we consider the past year in retrospect, make amends with each other and set goals for the coming year.

“This year, the Seicento Baroque Ensemble has set an exciting performance goal . . . one of Handel’s greatest—yet under-performed—oratorios, Judas Maccabaeus. This Chanukah oratorio tells the story of the Maccabees’ fight for religious tolerance and freedom from persecution. Handel’s music soars over the conflict, desolation, and joy, lifting the Chanukah story up for new generations.”

Duffy replaces the founding director of Seicento, Evanne Browne. Her duties at the College of Music include leading the graduate program in choral conducting at both the master’s and doctoral levels. She earned degrees from the University of Michigan (bachelors degree with honors in English), the University of Michigan Law School (Juris Doctor), the University of Miami Frost School of Music (masters in conducting) and the USC Thornton School of Music (doctorate in choral music).

Before coming to CU-Boulder, Duffy was on the faculty of the University of Montana and the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and practiced law in California. She is excited to join the faculty at CU, saying “it’s a legacy program . . . the envy of the country in terms of the gold standard for choral literature studies.”

At Seciento, she says, “it’s a wonderful opportunity to continue the amazing work that Evanne Browne had done. We’re taking on the enormous project from the get-go this fall, with Judas Maccabeus. Next spring the title of the concert is “Renaissance women.” It will be all women composers of the Renaissance and Baroque.

“That will be really fun to do—music that doesn’t get done very often.”

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Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Coreen Duffy, director
With Alice Del Simone, soprano; Alexandra Colaizzi, mezzo-soprano; Javier Abreu, tenor; and James Robinson, bass
Orchestra of Baroque-era period instrumentalists

• Handel: Judas Maccabeus

7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, Stewart Auditorium, Longmont
7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 116, Congregational Nevei Kodesh, Boulder
3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Denver

TICKETS (Students under 18 free)

CORRECTION: The name of bass soloist is James Robinson. It was originally incorrectly listed as James Robins.