Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbariae or “The triumphant Juditha, defeating the barbaric Holofernes” is the title of Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio. It tells the story recounted in the apocryphal Biblical Book of Judith of the Jewish widow Judith who defeats the Assyrian general Holofernes when he besieges her hometown of Bethulia. The oratorio was intended to be understood as an allegory for the victory of the Venetian navy over the Ottoman Empire.

The choice of the deeply dev...