The story of the innocent Susanna whose nude bathing in a stream so excited two elders in her community that they charged her with all sorts of dirty things is from the Apocrypha. Near the story’s close, the young Israelite Daniel, clearly a budding lawyer, disproves the elders’ claims by having them explain certain details without the other in the room–a method with which viewers of everything from Perry Mason to NYPD Blue will be familiar. (In the Carlisle Floyd version, there’s a twist and the ending is horrifyingly different.) The story, as Handel and his unknown librettist tell it, takes more than two and a half hours; what we get in place of nail-biting drama is a marvelous portrait of the chaste Susanna, her trusting husband Joacim, and the lascivious elders. There’s also a great concentration on the plot’s rural setting. Arias are filled with nature–oak, rose, poplar, jasmine, pine, cypress, and lily are just a few of the local flora, and wolf, dove, lark, and crocodile are notable fauna. In other words, Handel offers us a lovely pastoral setting, with a could-be-tragic story at its core; but neither Nature nor Susanna’s good nature wind up sullied.
This is a beautiful performance of the work, led by Peter Neumann with tenderness and, when required, with great verve. Neumann makes only a few cuts, equalling about 10 minutes and approved by Handel for the work’s 1759 revival. Nicholas McGegan’s account on Harmonia Mundi is note-complete and just as handsomely played. His Susanna, Lorraine Hunt, wins over this set’s Elisabeth von Magnus, but only by a hair; our present Joacim, Syste Buwalda, however, is better than McGegan’s Drew Minter. I also prefer Neumann’s Ruth Holton as Susanna’s Attendant and Daniel–she varies her voice for each part–over Jill Feldman’s similar undertakings with McGegan. And Neumann’s two elders are even more nasty than McGegan’s. It’s a really close call and I recommend either performance of this attractive work.
