Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope I shall perswade him to set another Scripture Collection I have made for him, & perform it for his own benefit in Passion Week. The librettist wrote to a friend on July 10, 1741: Jennens had based his libretto on passages from the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible, supplemented with texts from the Book of Common Prayer. That spring he received a masterful unsolicited libretto by wealthy, cultured country squire Charles Jennens, who had written the librettos for Saul, L’Allegro, and possibly Israel in Egypt. In February of that year Handel gave his last Italian opera performance in London and proposed to do “nothing” the following season. Italian opera, which Handel had produced for over thirty years in London, could no longer draw the aristocratic crowds necessary to sustain the enterprise. At their center was a consummate composer who in 1741 had come to a financial dead end, but who had creativity to spare. Yet circumstances converged that in hindsight offer some explanation of the phenomenon. No one could have predicted that Messiah would become the most widely performed oratorio of all time with performances occurring every Christmas season across the English-speaking world. George Frideric Handel, painting by Franics Kyte, 1742, National Portrait Gallery, Londonīorn in Halle, Germany, Februdied in London, April 14, 1759 Mezzo-soprano, Soprano duetto: He Shall Feed His Flockīass-baritone recitative: Behold, I Tell You a Mysteryīass-baritone aria: The Trumpet Shall Sound Mezzo-soprano recitative: Then Shall the Eyes of the Blind Be Opened Bass-baritone recitative: Thus Saith the LordĪlto recitative: Behold a Virgin Shall Conceiveīass-baritone recitative: For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover the Earthīass-baritone aria: The People That Walked in Darkness
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