Blood Water Paint: Cappella Clausura's production celebrates female artist and composer

“My illustrious lordship, I will show you what a woman can do,” Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi once said, asserting her right to compete in a field then dominated by men. Modern art historians have come to recognize her artistic excellence and innovation, while biographers have focused on her struggles as a feminist pioneer. Now her story forms the subject of Blood Water Paint, a multimedia event to be produced by the Newton professional ensemble Cappella Clausura on March 11 and 12.

The project began when Cappella Clausura musical director Amelia LeClair learned that writer Joy McCullough had created a play about Gentileschi’s life. LeClair had always admired the painter and wanted to produce the play, but Cappella Clausura’s specialty is music, not theater: The organization focuses on performing music by female composers, past and present. So LeClair hired University of London-trained director Anna Stenberg, and together they set about finding a way to make a new piece of theater. The subject matter of Gentileschi’s work soon suggested a logical path. Some of her most famous paintings portray the Biblical figures of Judith and Susanna, who also inspired cantatas by the Baroque composer Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.

As it turned out, the play and the music fit together perfectly: The play has thirteen scenes, while the two cantatas could be easily divided into fifteen sections, enough for an interlude after each scene, plus one at the beginning and the end. The final production involves eight musicians, and six actors playing a total of thirteen roles with the help of costumes supplied by the Brandeis theater department. The theatrical scenes are acted in English, while the music is sung in Jacquet de La Guerre’s original French. To aid the audience’s understanding, a PowerPoint presentation runs throughout, providing an English translation of the cantatas’ lyrics alongside images of Gentileschi’s art.

The core theme of the production, says Stenberg, is “looking at Artemisia through a modern lens and considering the different ways that women can be strong.” The Biblical Susanna stood her ground against false accusations of adultery and was vindicated, and Judith famously beheaded her people’s enemy, Holofernes. Their stories spoke to both Gentileschi and Jacquet de La Guerre, who brought them to life in image and song. LeClair notes that Susanna, in particular, had often been portrayed by male artists in objectifying ways, but Gentileschi presented her on her own terms, from the rare perspective of “the female gaze.” Stenberg has sought to embody this perspective in her own directing of the play, to the extent possible, echoing the paintings’ composition.

While focused on female strength, the production does treat themes of sexual violence. As a young woman, Gentileschi was raped by a man who was later convicted at trial. Blood Water Paint includes this well-known biographical fact but does not let it dominate the story, and Stenberg says an intimacy coordinator has been involved in the production to ensure that sensitive topics are handled appropriately. For years, says LeClair, Gentileschi was unfortunately most famous as a rape survivor, when she deserves to be known as an “artist on a par with Caravaggio.”

LeClair and Stenberg hope that Blood Water Paint makes a step in this direction by bringing Gentileschi’s story to new audiences. There will be two performances, one at the War Memorial auditorium in Newton’s City Hall at 8PM on Saturday, March 11, and one at 4PM on Sunday, March 12 at Emmanuel Church in Boston. Tickets are available at www.clausura.org.

Blood Water Paint: Cappella Clausura’s production celebrates female artist and composer

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