Creating probably more disquiet than audience disappointment, a Cambridge student opera has been added to the cultural cost of existing conflicts. In this case, that between Hamas and Israel. “Whilst it may seem Cambridge is a world away,” wrote the director, cancelling a production of Handel’s Saul, “there are people who live in our colleges and households who are facing unimaginable difficulties as they watch the situation unfold.”
While, if the relevant production were an opera inescapably connected with the current bloodshed – The Death of Klinghoffer, for instance – this might have been persuasive, the case for cancelling an English oratorio first staged in 1739, seems less clearcut. Freely derived from the Old Testament, it follows the downfall of the Israelite people’s first king, Saul, believed to have led them, until his defeat by the Philistines, about 3,000 years ago. In brief: Handel’s account, with words by Charles Jennens, begins after David, initially Saul’s favourite, has killed the giant Goliath with a pebble. It ends – albeit on an optimistic note – after Saul has brought death and defeat on himself, his family and his people.
