The story of Jephthah is contained in the Bible book of Judges, which is a chronicle of the tribes of Israel after they entered the Promised Land.

In a fit of over-zeal, Jephthah, initially an outcast, vowed to sacrifice the first living thing he encounters after a military victory. Unfortunately, it will be his only daughter, who welcomes the victor with music and dance and then settles in her inescapable fate.

Giacomo Carissimi, Roman initiator of the genre, composed this oratorio in the mid-seventeenth century. Half a century later, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the cantata Gottes Zeit ist die best Zeit, often called Actus Tragicus. It is probably his oldest funeral cantata and has the smallest line-up within this genre: besides four voices and basso continuo, only two recorders and gambas.

PROGRAM

GIACOMO CARISSIMI
Historia di Jephte

J.S. BACH
Cantate ‘Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit’BWV 106 (Actus Tragicus)

Source : Theater aan het Vrijthof official web page
Photo : AD MOSAM BaRock FB page