G.F Handel—Messiah Internationalism in Opera Was
G.F Handel—Messiah
Internationalism in opera was already accepted in Germany when George Frideric Handel took his first job in Hamburg in 1703. Arias were sung in Italian, but the recitatives were in the local German, while overtures were written in a French style. Handel soon left for Italy where he immersed himself in opera, developing his international style and perfecting his vocal writing. In 1711, he composed Rinaldo for London audiences, and opera was just emerging in the British Isles when Handel took permanent residence there in 1712. Drawing sizable stipends from royal patrons, he would spend the rest of his life in London composing works of great popularity and lasting renown.
In 1719, Handel was employed as the music director of the Royal Academy of Music, a new company funded by the king and wealthy donors for the purpose of attracting international singers, commissioning new operas, and supplying operatic entertainment to the London elite. Many English patrons were enthralled by the overpaid continental divas and the storylines of antiquity in works such as the popular Giulio Cesare. However, opera essentially served the foreign-born royalty and the escapist bourgeoisie, and it was unable to supplant the entrenched English tradition of stage theater. The popularity of works like John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which harshly satirized the elitist obsession with Italian opera, combined with the unsustainable salaries of opera stars, forced the academy to close its doors. Handel wasn’t finished with opera, but the entrepreneurial composer sought a new path forward with his English oratorio.
An oratorio is a religious work with every musical element of opera—arias, choruses, recitatives—but devoid of any staging conventions such as costumes or sets which were considered taboo for the performance of sacred texts. This unique genre was created to fulfill the needs of the church while supplying savvy audiences with musical entertainment during the Lenten season. Having written La resurrezione in 1708 while in Rome, Handel was familiar with the form, but English audiences of later decades had different tastes and expectations. The English oratorio of Handel’s genius differs from its Italian counterpart in more ways than just language: Britain’s strong choral tradition allowed Handel to incorporate long stretches of dramatic counterpoint and powerful anthems throughout a work, reducing the role of the soloists while elevating that of the chorus. Furthermore, Protestantism was more sympathetic than Catholicism to Old Testament scripture, giving Handel and his librettists the freedom to tell dramatic histories of Hebrew origin.
The ancient Greek and Roman stories popularly used for European opera carried the implication of the artistic and intellectual superiority of French and Italian courts, so it is not surprising that, in a time when Great Britain was competing to assert economic and military dominance in the Western world, English audiences rejected European pretension while identifying with dramatic themes sourced from the “Chosen People.” The public was smitten with works like Esther, Saul, and Israel in Egypt, which could be heard in theaters and concert halls during the Lenten season.
Charles Jennens was lucky to have an inheritance large enough to allow him to contribute to the performing arts and pursue literary ventures of his own. He helped finance Handel’s work for more than a decade and eventually collaborated with the composer in creating the libretto for his 1738 oratorio Saul. In 1741, the devout and intellectual Anglican crafted a libretto for a new work, compiling extracts from the King James Bible, largely from the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, and from psalms found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Without many direct quotations, characters, or narration, Messiah lacks many elements of explicit dramatic narrative, and instead relies on descriptive and reflective texts to create a contemplative meditation on the prophesy, birth, passion, resurrection, and glorification in heaven of Jesus Christ.
The first performances of Handel’s Messiah took place in the Great Music Hall of Dublin and sought to raise money to alleviate those languishing in debtor’s prison. His soloists were opera singers and his choir consisted of sixteen men and sixteen boys, accompanied by a modest orchestra. Such trim forces were typical of the time; even with a space-saving ban on swords and fashionable hoop skirts, only seven hundred Dubliners could cram into the Great Music Hall. The piece premiered to great acclaim in Dublin, and, despite a lukewarm reception in London the following year, Messiah eventually became Handel’s landmark work, gaining popularity through the end of his life. For the next two centuries, it would undergo dramatic reorchestrations, numerous translations, and audacious augmentations, each with lingering controversy, but the twentieth century brought research into historical performance practice and renewed interest in replicating Handel’s original intentions. The composer’s vast experience with the drama of opera allowed him to tap into the choral resources of Britain, creating a beloved work of intense piety and sacred entertainment.
Chaz Stuart, 2016