APOCRYPHA WATCH -- a Judith-fest in Kansas City:

Virginia Blanton teaches an Anglo-Saxon version of the story, in which Judith is a Christian, to her English students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Blanton notes that Judith appears in paintings variously from a “robust maid horrified by what she must do” to “a shameless slut.”

Linda E. Mitchell, professor of history and women’s and gender studies at UMKC, notes that Judith was “an iconic figure of independence and dissent” in the Renaissance, so the paintings were “political statements as much as aesthetic ones.”

The Friends of Chamber Music brings a dramatic staging of a Croatian version of the story with musical idioms from medieval Dalmatia on Nov. 8 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 W. 13th St.

Amity Bryson, chairwoman of the music department and director of women’s studies at Avila University, says the composer, Katarina Livljaniæ, draws materials from the earlier musical period “dominated by male composers,” but the feminine experience “adds a unique perspective” to this 21st-century composition.

These three scholars have lots to say about Judith’s morality and gender roles. They will speak at 6:30 p.m. in Founders’ Hall before the 8 p.m. performance in the sanctuary. For more information visit www.chambermusic.org.

And more on this Croation version here.