Tobias and the Angel (Jonathan Dove)
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Tobias and the Angel is a community opera by Jonathan Dove, with a libretto by David Lan. The opera premiered in 1999 at Christ Church Highbury Fields in London as the first 'Walkabout' production of the Young Vic theatre during its refurbishment. It was revived by the Young Vic as its first production when it reopened in 2006.
The story is based on the Book of Tobit from the Biblical Apocrypha. Tobit, a Jewish man from Nineveh, chooses to break the law when a fellow Jew is killed, by giving him a proper burial. The next morning he is blinded by a group of sparrows (played by a children's chorus) who throw their droppings in his eyes. Remembering that he is owed money by Raguel, a relative in Ecbatana, he sends his son Tobias to reclaim it. A stranger offers to help guide Tobias on his way. On the way, the stranger encourages Tobias, who is something of a good-for-nothing and only interested in dancing, to pay attention to the world around him - to listen to the songs of the trees, the mountains, the river. In the river, they are attacked by a giant fish. Hearing its hidden song, Tobias is able to overcome it, and the stranger tells him to take its heart and gall.
In Ecbatana, meanwhile, Sarah, Raguel's daughter, is held under the spell of a devil, Ashmodeus, who kills her husbands on their wedding night. When Tobias arrives, he falls in love with Sarah. The stranger, however, has eyes only for the unseen devil, and he instructs Tobias to use the fish's heart to break Ashmodeus' spell. This enables Tobias to wed Sarah without being killed, and they return to Nineveh. Tobias uses the gall to cure Tobit's blindness, and the stranger reveals himself as the angel Raphael.
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