Belshazzar
Belshazzar ( HWV 61; Eng. Belshazzar ) is an oratorio in three parts by Georg Friedrich Handel .
Emergence
The origin of the Belshazzar can be traced back to the traditional correspondence between Handel and the librettist Charles Jennens . Handel planned two new oratorios for the 1745 season. He began composing the first of these, Hercules , on July 19, 1744. On June 9, he had already asked Jennens to send him the first act of Belshazzar . On the day he started Hercules , he wrote another letter to Jennens, thanking Jennens for the mailing and saying "Your reasons for the length of the first act are interely satisfactory to me, and it is likewise my opinion to have the following acts short ".
Apparently Jennens couldn't keep up with Handel's pace. On August 21, Handel finished Hercules and announced that he had received the text for the second act and was now waiting impatiently for the third. He started the setting on August 23rd and finished the first act on the 3rd and the second on September 10th. Three days later, he urged the librettist to send him the outstanding act.
On October 3rd, he finally thanked for the receipt of the rest of the text, which he had to shorten in order not to make the oratorio too long. A date for the completion of Act 3 is missing, but according to Jennens, the oratorio ended on October 23. The premiere took place on March 27, 1745 at the King's Theater .
libretto
The main source for the libretto was the book of Daniel (Dan 5), in which the events around the Sesach festival (see Menetekel ) are described, as well as Isa 13 and Jer 25 . Further historical sources are Herodotus ( Historien I, 185 ff.), In which the figure of Nitocris appears in particular, which does not appear in the Bible text, and Xenophon (Kyra paideia IV, 6 and XII, 13).
people
Handel composed the oratorio for the following ensemble:
- Belshazzar : John Beard ( tenor )
- Gobrias : Henry Theodore Reinhold ( bass )
- Nitocris : Élisabeth Duparc , known as La Francesina ( soprano )
- Cyrus : Mrs. Robinson ( mezzo-soprano )
- Daniel : Susanna Maria Cibber ( alto )
Because of Mrs. Cibber's illness, several cast changes had to be made for the premiere. Mrs. Robinson now sang Daniel, whose part had to be adapted to the higher pitch of Robinson. Thomas Reinhold now sang Cyrus. The role of Gobrias was split up: part was sung by John Beard, who was also responsible for the title role, and an aria was assigned to Cyrus.
Web links
- Score by Belshazzar (Handel work edition, edited by Friedrich Chrysander , Leipzig 1864)
literature
- Winton Dean : Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques. Clarendon, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-19-816184-0 , (Original edition: Oxford University Press, Oxford 1959).
- Hans Joachim Marx : Handel's oratorios, odes and serenatas. A compendium. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-27815-2 .
- Albert Scheibler, Julia Evdokimova: Georg Friedrich Händel. Oratorios guides . Edition Cologne, Lohmar 1993, ISBN 3-928010-04-2 .