A series of five Blogs discussing the literary component of
the story of Judith found in the Apocrypha in light of composer
Alexander Serov’s own professed expectations for opera,
to determine what may be considered quintessentially
Russian about his first opera, Judith.
A Russian Judith? Literary Reflections on
Alexander Nikolayevich Serov’s First Opera
Part 4
The Opera Judith
As a story, the Book of Judith offers high drama, intrigue, suspense, and sexual innuendo, as well as a moral lesson. Serov chose to dispense with the lengthy introductory material about Nebuchadnezzer’s escalating battle campaign and instead began the opera at the crucial point in chapter 7 of the apocryphal account, in the besieged town of Bethulia, whose inhabitants are begging their leaders to surrender the town to the enemy rather than continue their hopeless suffering.
Act 1
The anguished residents assembled in Act 1 are desperate and at risk of renouncing their faith; their last source of water has dried up, and death from thirst is imminent if help does not come soon. To emphasize the fundamental moral element of the situation so integral to Russian realism, Serov adds the character Eliachim, a high priest who, in a cameo appearance, relates the Exodus story and prophesies that glory will be restored to those who put their faith in God.
Achior, who, following his apocryphal prediction of doom for the Assyrians becomes a passive victim of the besieged Bethulia, takes on a more active role in the opera when, rather than waiting to be summoned to the town leaders, he demands to appear before them to relate his role in dissuading an Assyrian attack on the Jewish people town and its people. In a pithy condensation of relevant text, Serov conflates the twice-told apocryphal history of Achior into a single telling related by this pivotal character who serves as an important link between the two parts of the Book of Judith. 1 With a foot firmly planted in each section, Achior supplies the background information found in chapters 1 to 7 that is missing from Serov’s operatic version of the story of Judith.
Act 2
Act 2 of Serov’s Judith introduces the heroine of this rescue opera. A natural outgrowth of the spirit of the time in the revolutionary fervor of western Europe, the rescue opera appealed to advocates of realism in eastern Europe for whom ethical principles guided behavior. That nineteenth-century Russia was a Christian nation was not inimical to deliverance at the hand of a Jewish woman. In Richard Taruskin’s view, Christianity and Judaism in Russian are only colors, and religious colors were often interchangeable. 2
From Serov’s account, it is not clear that Judith was not among the assembly of Bethulia residents in Act 1. She does, however, know of the plan for eventual surrender. Judith’s objective background so carefully explicated in the Apocrypha is deleted in favor of an opening monologue not found in the biblical account. Referring only to “My poor Manasseh,” Judith’s deceased husband, the operatic text uses Judith’s remembrance of him to provide a glimpse of the multifaceted personality of this female Moses who will save her people from continued enemy oppression. Judith’s admission of doubt about the mission she proposes to undertake offers the only hint of human vulnerability in an otherwise staunchly resolute woman. In the monologue Judith also shares her as yet undisclosed plan that, with God’s help, she soon will execute.
In an interesting departure from the biblical text Serov gives the high priest Ozias, whom Judith has rebuked for his lack of faith, the words “Judith, the Creator has given you the wisdom of a man and your word is true before God” (italics mine). The comment sheds light not so much on Israelite culture of the time as on nineteenth-century Russian views of women, for whom wisdom was not an accepted trait. Judith’s superiority to the male leaders of Bethulia who, under pressure, compromise their values by capitulating to terms of surrender that the town’s weary residents demand, cannot easily be reconciled. Offering Pushkin’s Tatiana in Eugene Onegin as the apotheosis of the Russian woman, it is beauty, not brains, that should augment Judith’s positive attitude and resolute spirit. 3 Thus Serov’s inclusion of the remark uncovers yet another contradiction: a woman who is beautiful and wise and plans to use both attributes to her advantage against the enemy. 4
The remainder of Act 2 introduces another pivotal character whose role in the opera has expanded beyond that found in the Apocrypha. Judith’s maid, who is mute in the biblical story, acquires both a name, Avra, and a voice as the old nurse in Serov’s opera.
The role of the nurse in opera, taking its precedent from drama, is not the seemingly superficial character of first impression but is actually a complex character who fulfills an important function in the explication of personality and operatic plot. Like her dramatic counterpart, the nurse in opera serves most obviously as guardian and confidante, but may also serve as a point-of-view character, as well as a foil to contrast another character. Avra is descended from the balia or wet nurse of Italian comedy. Initially employed by parents to breastfeed their infant, once the child was weaned, the balia stayed with the family, often as a servant, and played an active role in the child’s upbringing.
In Serov’s opera, Avra offers the means to elucidate Judith’s behavior. For example, because Serov leaves out the lengthy description of Judith’s piety found in the Apocrypha, it is through Avra’s conversation with Judith that the heroine’s virtue and humility are revealed.
Avra’s comment, “You are not Deborah or Jael,” identifies a precedent for Judith’s unfolding scheme. Sidnie White suggests that the story of Jael and Deborah served as the model for the Judith story in the Apocrypha. 5 Not mentioned in the Book of Judith, the story of Deborah and Jael is found in the Old Testament Book of Judges, chapters 4 and 5. Deborah, a prophetess and judge in Israel, tells Barak, a judge, leader, and soldier of God’s command to engage Sisera, Canaanite King Jabin’s military commander, in combat on Mount Tabor. Sisera flees the battle scene and seeks refuge in the tent of Jael, who, after offering him sanctuary, drives a tent peg through his skull. Avra’s song about Jael, which Judith apparently has heard on more than one occasion, prefigures the strategy by which Judith’s hand will deliver Israel in yet another decisive military encounter.
Avra disapproves of Judith’s plan to enter “that godless and debauched camp,” but Judith remains steadfast in her intentions. When Judith reveals her plan, it is only the skillful use of feminine wiles that surfaces, not the ultimate act of decapitation. “Could she have forgotten all restraint and modesty?” wonders Avra. “I suckled you at my breast, you bloomed like a lily of paradise. I have shed so many tears for you! … I beg you to listen to me: dishonor awaits you there. Do not go, Judith, I beseech you.” Avra’s pleading heightens the drama an provides a contrast between her own fears and Judith’s courage.
Act 3
The picture of debauchery that Avra paints in Act 2 is realized in the opening of Act 3. In yet another departure from the biblical account, Serov separates the two acts with The March of Holofernes, with an oriental flair, to shift the action from the besieged town to the enemy camp. Having berated Glinka’s use of orientalism in Ruslan and Lyudmilla, Serov adds oriental color to his own first opera. The chorus of odalisques – female slaves or concubines of Turkish origin – sing of languid nights of the Orient and promises of love. Serov’s pandering to Western operatic convention in the use of exotic foreign color introduces a sexual element into the unfolding drama, thereby setting the stage for the imminent downfall of Holofernes, who, impatient to get on with the war, dismisses the frivolous entertainment.
Judith’s entrance into the camp provided Serov with additional opportunities for sexual innuendos beyond those found in the biblical story. Smitten by their unannounced visitor, the chorus of Assyrians proclaims, “But what beauty, my friends! What a bosom, what eyes! She exudes passion. She has bewitched us all!” As the Assyrians’ blood boils with passion, Judith spins her web of intrigue to the horror of her nurse who cannot see past the deception. Similar to the role of the Greek chorus, Avra’s asides impart the moral implications of the behaviors she is witnessing.
Act 4
The oriental theme and its explicitly sexual overtones continue in Act 4 of Judith. In yet another embellishment of the biblical account, Serov adds Bacchanalian dances, a Hindu song, and an orgy to celebrate wine, women, and song. When the eunuch Bagoas sings of lovely young maidens returning from their nocturnal baths, where they have bathed “their breasts, their faces and heavy black tresses,” Holofernes again grows impatient, preferring to hear battle songs. Yet this is a man obviously overcome with lust, confirmed by Serov’s addition of the slave Asfaneses, whom Holofernes kills for having made a disparaging remark about Judith.
Opera goers familiar with the biblical story of Judith would not have overlooked the irony of the powerful warrior Holofernes who would fatally succumb to the pleasures of the flesh that he previously had countered with thoughts of battle. Throughout the action Avra remains the lone voice of conscience, challenging what she does not understand in Judith’s behavior: “Why are we here among these dogs?” Avra asks Judith. “Debauchery, blood, a shameful orgy! It is a mortal sin! O God of our fathers, protect us!”
Yet his chosen queen eludes Holofernes, leading to a delirium not found in the Apocrypha. 6 A jealous suitor of paranoid dimension, Holofernes works himself into a frenzy, threatened by real and imaginary traitors, before lapsing into unconsciousness.
Serov’s inclusion of an altered state of consciousness not found in the Book of Judith gives the opera gsoer more access to Holofernes’s innermost thoughts and feelings. The use of dreams and other altered states of consciousness were a fundamental technique of characterization in nineteenth-century Russia literature. These twilight realms of consciousness allowed authors to recapitulate past events, prophesy future developments, and explicate thematic statements. While some dreams establish a dichotomy between fantasy and real life, others offer an illumination that leads to discovery of fundamental truths in the character’s waking life. 7
Holofernes’s delirious fit achieves the latter goal. The pathological egotism previously suspected in the hardened battle commander is confirmed as his confusion escalates. In a stroke of literary mastery, Serov exposes the fatal flaw in the bombastic Holofernes: he who aspires to be king of the world would give away everything for Judith. 8
The final ironic resolution is thus foretold. Holofernes indeed will give away everything, including his very life, to his coveted beauty. Judith corroborates the anticipated outcome of the plot in a double entendre added by Serov. When Bagoas assures Judith that the episode she has witnessed in Holofernes will be mitigated by sleep, Judith adds: “Yes, a deep and restorative sleep.”
That the details of Judith’s murder of Holofernes as explicated in the Apocrypha take place off stage in Serov’s opera follows operatic convention – John the Baptist’s beheading in Salome also was off stage, for example. According to Taruskin’s synopsis:
At last the hour has come for the execution of Judith’s deed. She sends Avra out of the tent, seizes Holofernes’s own sword and disappears under the tent canopy. The blows of a sword and a muffled cry are heard, followed by a deathly silence. Judith reappears pale and trembling, with the bloodied sword and Holofernes’s severed head in her hands. 9
Serov’s choice of staging for the event likely had more to do with theatrical expediency than with distaste for an act of murder committed on stage. Perhaps such grisly details were better left to the imagination, even in an opera that attempted to portray life realistically.
Act 5
At the beginning of the final act Serov returns to the besieged residents of Bethulia to highlight their mounting despair. Feeling betrayed by both God and now Judith, the town’s inhabitants are deaf to the pleas of their leaders to put their trust in God and in his servant Judith and are on the verge of mutiny. Not found in the apocryphal story, the renewal of the theme of despair heightens the contrast with the victory that soon will be realized on Judith’s return.
The remainder of Judith centers on Bethulia and its triumphant heroine. The dismay and terror that gripped the soldiers of the enemy camp after discovering their headless leader, is missing. After the severed head is displayed to the enemy from the top of the town’s ramparts, Serov omits the details of the military counteroffensive outlined by Judith. The return of the high priest Ozias from the battlefield offers Serov the opportunity to report on the Israelite attack and the flight of enemy troops recounted in the Apocrypha.
Achior, the seasoned combat veteran who in the apocryphal story fainted at the sight of Holofernes’ head and upon reviving was converted to Judaism, reappears in the opera only briefly to praise Judith’s courage. “How did you dare to venture fearlessly and alone into the lion’s den?” he marvels. Serov’s omission of the conversion, not essential to the operatic plot, also may have indicated a concession to Russia’s status as a Christian nation. Avra, who like the maid of the apocryphal story carries the head of Holofernes back to Bethulia in a bag, has no further role; that the maid later was freed by the biblical Judith is irrelevant to the portion of the story that Serov chose to set in the opera.
Having reached the climax of the drama with the beheading of Holofernes and the return of the triumphant Judith, Serov dispensed with the details of the story that conclude the Book of Judith, such as the extensive looting of the enemy camp, the celebratory offerings made to God, and the sedate lifestyle of Judith, who lived to age 105. The joyous hymn to God, that Serov condensed to focus only on praise rather than on the summation of Judith’s actions found in the Apocrypha, concludes the opera Judith with a clear message on the power of good over evil in a moral world. “You are thrice holy, invisible Jehovah,” the people proclaim. “You are the rampart of those who pray. You have had pity on us. Heaven and earth are full of your greatness. God, you have heard the prayers of your people.”
Continued in Part 5 Conclusion
For more about the role of the nurse character in Serov’s Judith, see Judith Barger, The Nurse in History and Opera: From Servant to Sister (Lexington Books, May 2024).
Notes
- Carey A. Moore, The Anchor Bible: Judith, a New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), 59.
- Richard Taruskin, “Christian Themes in Russian Opera: A Millennial Essay,” Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 86.
- See Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Pushkin,” in Russian Views of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, trans. Sona S. Hoisington (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 59.
- Quotations are taken from the English translation of the libretto printed for Alexander Serov, Judith, Soloists and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, cond. Andrey Tchistiakov (Le Chant du Monde CD, 1991). The remark made by Ozias, likely intended as faint praise when originally written, now takes on the aura of a sexist retort.
- Sidnie A. White, “In the Steps of Jael and Deborah: Judith as Heroine,” in “No One Spoke Ill of Her”: Essays on Judith, ed. James C. VanderKam (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1992), 5.
- Holofernes’ actions share similarities with King Herod in the Salome story. In Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play Salomé, on which Richard Strauss based his opera Salome.when Herod first beseeches Salomé to dance for him, he tells her that he is sad, because on his way he slipped in blood – an evil omen –“and I heard, I am sure I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings. I cannot tell what they mean.” See Oscar Wilde, Salome: A Tragedy in One Act, trans. Lord Douglas Alfred (London: John Lane, 1907). https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42704/42704-h/42704-h.htm
- Michael R. Katz, Dreams and the Unconscious in Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction (Hanover, CT: University Press of New England, 1984), 1, 147.
- Herod was willing to give up only half his kingdom to Salome.
- Taruskin, Opera and Drama, 437–38.
