“L’interna che tu provi pugna d’affetti”: love, virtue and other affetti in “Il voto di Jefte” by Vincenzo Benatti, Luigi Gatti and Luigi Carusio

The biblical subject of Jephthah lends itself very well to translating into music some strong and contrasting ‘Affetti’, first that between the virtue of Jephthah, who must honour the vow made to God, and the love that binds him to his daughter, destined to die. The essay focuses on an unknown score, composed in 1794 for the Mantuan academic milieu by V. Benatti and L. Gatti, based on a libretto by A. Scarpelli and an earlier score by L. Carusio. The work presents an interesting situation from a philological point of view, only hinted at, however, in the essay. The constellation of affections is complicated by the presence of added characters, such as Azael, betrothed of Seila (the Daughter), and Bersheba, Jephthah’s sister. We thus have different shades of love and virtue, depending on the relationships between the characters; the score reflects well the multiple contrasts of the poetic text.