Judas Maccabaeus (oratorio)
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Judas Maccabaeus (HWV 54) is an oratorio in three acts by George Frideric Handel.
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[edit] Background
The political context is the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Handel in 1746 hastily composed the Occasional Oratorio for the encouragement of the English. After the success of the British forces at the Battle of Culloden he started a work in honour of the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, addressed as "Truly Wise, Valiant, and Virtuous Commander" in the libretto.
The first performance took place on April 1, 1747 at Covent Garden, and Judas Maccabaeus became one of Handel's most popular oratorios with frequent reprises, second only to Messiah.
"See, the Conqu'ring hero comes", from Judas Maccabaeus, became well-known later as the music was invariably played by brass bands at the opening of new railway lines and stations in Britain during the 19th century and is one of the movements in Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs.
In 1884 Edmond Louis Budry added words to an extract which is now a popular hymn "Thine Is the Glory" ("À toi la gloire").
[edit] Libretto
Thomas Morell based the libretto on the apocryphal 1 Maccabees 2-8, adding some motives from the Antiquitates Judaicae of Flavius Josephus. Georg Gottfried Gervinus translated the libretto into German.
[edit] Cast
Original cast:
- Judas: John Beard (tenor)
- Israelite man: Caterina Galli (mezzosoprano)
- Israelite woman: Elisabetta de Gambarini (soprano)
- Simon, brother to Judas: Thomas Reinhold (bass)
- Eupolemus, Jewish ambassador to Rome: Thomas Reinhold
