Theodora, the last but one of Handel's oratorios, was a complete failure at its first performance in 1750: earthquake shocks had driven many Society people from London; the subject, a Christian martyr of Antioch persecuted under Diocletian, did not have the attraction of being Biblical; and its high moral tone did not appeal: indeed, the composer wryly remarked that ''the Jews will not come to it as they did to Judas Maccabaeus because it is a Christian story, and the ladies will not because it is a virtuous one''. Nor has it been extensively revived: a 1969 recording—the only other one I have encountered—was less than satisfactory, and even the work's one well-known aria, ''Angels ever bright and fair'', is unrepresented in the current Classical Catalogue. Yet Handel himself rated Theodora above all is other works of the kind, and Act 2 has been claimed by a foremost Handel scholar as ''the finest single act in any of the oratorios''. Theodora's deep and intimate spirituality also set it rather apart from his previous works, though Handel also show an unexpected leniency towards the pagan, hedonistic Romans: he depicts them homophonically, in bright colours, dance rhythms and major keys, while the Christians, initially glum but later becoming more fervent, are presented contrapuntally and mostly in the minor.
Harnoncourt is fortunate both in his firm-toned chorus, whose words are excellent and who capture equally convincingly the Purcellian syncopations of ''Queen of summer'', the gaiety of ''Venus laughing from the skies'' and the rapt final chorus, and in his experienced instrumental group. There is just an occasional slight imprecision of ensemble, perhaps inevitable in a live performance, and some inconsistency over decorating da capos; but far more upsetting is some of the flexibility of pace in which he indulges. The repetitions of ''peace and rest'' at the end of Part I are unduly dragged out, and Theodora's ''Lord, favour still'' quite disrupts the ''Blest be the Lord'' chorus in which it intervenes.
Once past her initial aria, Roberta Alexander makes an appealing heroine, who, when she refuses to sacrifice to Jove in honour of the emperor's birthday, is condemned, to her horror to become a temple prostitute. She is particularly affecting in Part 2, with its sublime F sharp minor aria. ''With darkness deep''; but in ''Angels'' she is mercilessly rushed, at nothing like the marked Larghetto, thus robbing it of its proper atmosphere of quiet trust and serenity. The part of Didymus a secretly Christian Roman who vainly attempts to rescue Theodora from a fate worse than death by providing her with a disguise, was only the second in Handel's English oratorios to be written for a castrato. His part has a difficult start with a rapturous aria in E flat, in which Jochen Kowalski seems less at ease in matters of intonation, though by his second aria, ''Kind heaven'', he has recovered his usual splendid form (one or two vowels, however, are not very English): the elaborately-textured duet. ''To thee, glorious son'' for him and Theodora is one of the high points of the score. (Another is the remarkable instrumental Largo in the Act 2 prison scene, with a persistent solitary note recurring on the flutes—was this, I wonder, at the back of Stanford's mind when he wrote The blue bird?) Jard van Nes brings a well-placed voice and fine legato line (as in ''Defend her, heaven'') to the part of Theodora's confidante Irene; Hans-Peter Blochwitz is controlled and mellifluous in the florid but bland music for Septimius, a Roman sympathetic to Didymus but unready to defy orders; and Anton Scharinger demonstrates a magnificently black tone (and incidentally a resounding high G in one cadence) as the authoritarian president of Antioch.
Scharinger, however, badly needed an English coach who could have helped him avoid a number of mispronunciations: such an adviser could also have prevented, in other members of the cast, some wrong verbal phrasing and a few faults of non-emphasis on key words. In view of the oratorio's length, a number of cuts have been made: some, such as the trio and courante of the Overture (in any case borrowed from Muffat), recitative passages, and two inept arias for Irene, are no great loss; but what possessed Harnoncourt to eliminate two fine arias in Part 2, Theodora's ''O that on wings I could rise'' and Didymus's ''Deeds of kindness''? Finally, mention has to be made of a number of disturbing small noises—things dropping, foot shuffles, page rustlings, and worst of all, coughs, of course at quiet moments such as the start of the da capo of ''Angels'' and in the Adagio bars of ''Kind heaven''. Still, Theodora is so superb a work that it transcends all such flaws, and this recording merits a sincere welcome.'