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Chapter 1 - Artistic norms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Ruth Smith
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Summary

When the English public was introduced to Esther in 1732 it also encountered the designation oratorio for the first time. The advertisements for both the ‘pirated’ York Buildings version and Handel's own performances referred to the work as such. The former helpfully added ‘or Sacred Drama’, but this may have raised false expectations. The commentator who objected to Handel's Italian singers mangling the English words, though carefully warned in Handel's advertisement that ‘There will be no Action on the Stage’, complained that ‘I saw indeed the finest Assembly of People I ever beheld in my Life, but, to my great Surprize, found this Sacred Drama a mere Consort [concert], no Scenary, Dress or Action, so necessary to a Drama’. Preferring Handel's new operas, Ezio and Sosarme, he confesses:

(I am sorry I am so wicked) but I like one good Opera better than Twenty Oratorio's: Were they indeed to make a regular Drama of a good Scripture Story, and perform'd it with proper Decorations, which may be done with as much Reverence in proper Habits, as in their own common Apparel; (I am sure with more Grandeur and Solemnity, and at least equal Decency) then should I change my Mind, then would the Stage appear in its full Lustre, and Musick Answer to its original Design.

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Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought , pp. 43 - 51
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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  • Artistic norms
  • Ruth Smith
  • Book: Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511470240.003
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  • Artistic norms
  • Ruth Smith
  • Book: Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511470240.003
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Artistic norms
  • Ruth Smith
  • Book: Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511470240.003
Available formats
×