Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques

Winton Dean's masterly and definitive study deals with Handel's eighteen oratorios and masques in dramatic form. These works, which represent the peak of the composer's achievement, are essentially theatrical rather than religious and would undoubtedly have been performed on the stage from the first but for the intervention of the ecclesiastical authorities. At least ten or twelve of them are among the highest achievements of musical drama not only of their time but in any age. One of the most important works of musical scholarship to be published in recent times, this book is now available for the first time in paperback. This book is intended for handelians, musicologists, and students of eighteenth-century music and drama.Table of ContentPart 1: The oratorio before Handel; the early works and Italian operas; the Handelian synthesis; Handel's style in the oratorios; the background to performance; the authographs and printed librettos; the oratorios in performance; the oratorio and English taste. Part 2: Acis and Galatea; Esther; Deborah; Athalia; interlude 1733-1738; Saul; interlude 1738-1742; Samson; Semele; Joseph and his brethren; Hercules; Belshazzar; Judas Macabaeus; Alexander Balus; Joshua; Solomon; Susanna; Theodora; the choice of Hercules; Jephtha. Appendices: structural analysis; instrumentation; performances during Handel's life; places of performance during Handel's life; borrowings; pieces sung in Italian; variants in the text of "Esther"; cuts in librettos of "Samson"; Handel's oratorio singers; stage revivals; first lines of airs and duets.