Jephta’s Daughter

  

BAYERISCHE STAATSOPER FESTSPIEL-WERKSTATT

Premiered at Haus der Kunst, Munich, July 2015

Künstlerische Produktionsleitung   Sandra Eberle  Technische Produktionsleitung   Nico Sutter  Produktionsassistenz, Inspizienz Esteban Muñoz  Lichtinspizienz  Urte Regler  Ausstattungsassistenz   Linda Sollacher  Ton   Klemens Schulze, Clemens Nagl Video Johannes Mayrhofer  Bühnenmeister   Ralf Wendorf  Werkstätten  Mathias Kaschube, Peter Buchheit  Transport   Florian Kunz Deko/Requisite   Herbert Häming   Produktionsleitung Kostüm   Anna Rehm Garderobe   Daniel Schröder   Maske E. Achim Meier, Alexander Gehs. 

Video       Marino Solokhov 

Photos     Lea Dietrich
 

How might we decipher the enigma of the story of Jephta’s daughter? The Old Testament doesn’t give us any information about her life and character. She doesn’t even have a name; she’s only called “the daughter”.

Since she asks for time – two months – to leave and come back, it is not simply a murder. It is, in a sense a choice: she returns and complies with the sacrifice. What motivates that “choice”? Why and in what way does she sacrifice herself for her father’s fame and glory? At the same time, what is Jephta’s character and how is it possible for a father to sacrifice his own daughter – the thing which is precious to him most – for power, leadership and control?

Trying to understand this 3,000 year-old story, I’ve decided to examine basic human mechanisms such as female self-sacrifice, the value of virginity, the female body as a commodity, the raging victim syndrome, violence and sensuality, the paternal law of state and religion, and the image of ultimate freedom in a state of being that is uninhibited precisely because it is teleologically bound.

The piece is divided into two parts. It starts where the story ends – with the daughter’s physical sacrifice in a constrained universe which is the father’s world. The second part travels back in time to the universe the daughter seeks to create before being sacrificed – the two months in the mountains with her friends. In this chapter I aim to create a farewell party for un-lived experiences and fantasies. Setting out from the question “what would you do if you had two months to live”, this chapter is about the celebration of life in the face of imminent death. 

Bayerische Staatsoper's website - Jephta's Daughter 

The Old Testament book of Judges tells the story of Jephta and his daughter. At the climax of a great battle to defend his land, the newly appointed leader of the people of Israel swears an oath: If God will grant him victory, Jephta will offer him what or whomever should greet him upon his return as a sacrifice. And so it is that as Jephta returns home triumphant it is his daughter who runs to meet him. She respects her father's oath, but requests a grace period of two months in which to withdraw to the mountains with her friends and "weep for her virginity". 

In response to variations on this story of sacrifice, and in dialogue with their musical interpretations - in particular, Giacomo Carissimi's oratorio Historia di Jephteof 1647 - with a troupe of dancers, singers and musicians, Israeli choreographer Saar Magal explores some of the puzzles at the heart of the story: What motive compels the father to remain true to his word? What happens during the two months' grace that the daughter successfully persuades her father to grant? Where do the women go? What happens to them there? Why do they return? Their exploration leads them through a whole spectrum of themes woven into this strange tale: sacrifice and self-sacrifice, faith and devotion, virginity and innocence, ambition, invention, conceit and the public eye.

Jephta's Daughter was produced by the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernfestspiele in July 2015.