What is "jephte"

Jephté (Jephtha) is an opera by the French composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts (because of its subject matter it was also styled a tragédie biblique). The libretto, by the Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on the Biblical story of Jephtha. The oratorio a was first performed at the Académie royale de musique, Paris on 28 February 1732. It was the first opera in France using a story from the Bible to appear on a public stage. For this reason, Cardinal de Noailles banned performances of the work for a time. Montéclair made revisions for revivals of the work in March 1732 and April 1737.

Jephte or Historia di Jephte is an important exemplar of the mid 17th Century oratorio form composed by Giacomo Carissimi around 1650 (probably 1648), based on the story of Jephtha in the Old Testament Book of Judges. The work follows what is considered the classic early Baroque oratorio form with a Biblical text related by a soloists and chorus linked by a narrator. The only known contemporaneous score is for organ continuo alone though this is sometimes augmented in performance by violins and string bass, for which some support exists in other works by the composer.

A 1976 version exists arranged by Hans Werner Henze for 7 solo voices, 6 part chorus, flutes, percussion and plucked strings.