Giving Voice to the Levite’s Concubine and to Rispa, Hagar, and Tamar

The Levite’s concubine, Rispa, Hagar and Tamar are four biblical women who were victims of violence and hatred. The Levite’s concubine, recounted in the book of Judges, is one of the darkest episodes in Israel’s history, a veritable horror story. A gang rape of a (nameless) woman whose body is then desecrated, dismembered into twelve pieces to be sent to the twelve tribes of Israel. “Now whoever saw this said, ‘Such a thing has never happened nor has ever been seen, since the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, until this day! Take the matter to heart, take counsel and speak’”.

Rispa, who is mentioned in the second book of Samuel, is a secondary wife of King Saul by whom she had two sons, but who also suffered violence from the army commander called Abner. When the new king David immolates the entire family of his ruthless predecessor to a distorted idea of retributive justice, Rispa does not resign herself to the death of her sons, she does not accept that their hanged bodies are abandoned to the elements and the beasts. Instead, she guards their corpses, and assures them the dignity of burial. And with this gesture of compassion she brought about an end to the war.

Hagar, whose life story is recounted in the book of Genesis, is Sarah’s Egyptian slave, and Abraham’s wife. She suffers violence three times over: the first, that of slavery; the second, that of Sarah who, unable to have a child, offers her to her husband with the aim of adopting the child when she gives birth; and third, that of Abraham who throws her out together with little Ishmael when Sarah begets Isaac, who is her own son.

Tamar, who is described in the second book of Samuel, is David’s beautiful daughter, whom his half-brother Amnon falls in love. After raping her, he turns from love to hate and throws her out of the house. It will be the other brother, Absalon, who will avenge the dishonor done to her.

These four women were given voice by author, Rosella Postorino, who wrote the libretto of the show Il buio non ha voce [Darkness Has No Voice], staged at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari as part of the È tempo di cambiare musica [It’s Time to Change Music] event. The performance was an initiative of the Fondazione Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari and the Apulia Region in collaboration with two Italian associations -Una nessuna centomila and Giraffa onlus- combatting violence against women.

Four monologues for recited voice (actress Maddalena Crippa), mezzo-soprano (Marina Comparato) and orchestra (that of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari conducted by Alessandro Cadario), with music by Matteo D’Amico.

Here we have published the Levite’s Concubine monologue.