Librettist David Harsent notes that there is no doubt that Judas’s betrayal
led to Christ’s death, but begs us to ask, what did Judas believe was his
‘purpose’? After all, if he had not ‘fulfilled’ this role, chosen or
predetermined, mankind would not have been saved. David Harsent professes
that his own aim was to ‘write Judas out of hell’, ‘to set him before an
audience and bring him to a new judgment’.
Beamish and Harsent purport to present the Passion story from the
perspective of Judas Iscariot, but this is not really what they do. Or
rather, at times do they seem to offer Judas’s understanding of his role,
but this is set against a single question which is reiterated and rephrased
throughout – ‘Does Judas choose, or is he chosen to betray Christ?’
Moreover, ‘Do we following the callings of our own heart – or the callings
of whatever voice we choose to name, God’s voice, or the Devil’s’?
Source: Opera Today
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