Read e-book online Handel’s Israelite Oratorio Libretti: Sacred Drama and PDF

By Deborah W. Rooke

ISBN-10: 0199279284

ISBN-13: 9780199279289

Handel's Israelite oratorios are this present day little identified between non-specialists, yet of their personal day they have been specified, pioneering and very renowned. courting from the interval 1732-1752, they mix the musical conventions of Italian opera with dramatic plots in English which are variations of outdated testomony narratives. They represent a kind of biblical interpretation, yet thus far, there was no thoroughgoing examine of the theological rules or the attitudes in the direction of the biblical textual content that would be conveyed within the oratorios' libretti. This booklet goals to fill that hole from an interdisciplinary standpoint.

Combining the insights of present-day religious study with these of Handelian reviews, Deborah W. Rooke examines the libretti of ten oratorios - Esther, Deborah, Athalia, Saul, Samson, Joseph and his Brethren, Judas Macchabaeus, Solomon, Susanna and Jephtha - and evaluates the connection among each one libretto and the biblical tale on which it really is dependent. Rooke reviews on every one biblical textual content from a latest scholarly point of view, after which compares the trendy interpretation with the model of the biblical narrative that looks within the suitable libretto. the place the libretto relies on a previous dramatic or literary model of the biblical narrative, she additionally discusses the past edition and the way it pertains to either the biblical textual content and the corresponding oratorio libretto. during this manner the special nuances of the oratorio libretti are highlighted, and every libretto is then analysed and interpreted within the mild of eighteenth-century faith, scholarship, tradition and politics. the result's a desirable exploration not just of the oratorio libretti but additionally of the way tradition and context determines the character of biblical interpretation.

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However, the Septuagint speaks of the heathen wanting KîÜæÆØ ›æØóìeí óôüìÆôüò óïı [exarai horismon stomatos sou], ‘to destroy the decree of your mouth’ (Est. 35 When the biblical text is understood in this messianic fashion, the exilic setting for the Esther narrative considerably increases the gravity of the situation, since it gives rise to the fear that God has abandoned the long-laid plans both for the Jews and via them for the future of the human race—a state of affairs that if true would have repercussions right down to Racine’s own day.

4–8 [ET 3–7] describes a confederation of Israel’s enemies, including the Amalekites, who are planning to cut Israel off from being a nation so that their name will be remembered no more. e. the Jews’] place no more be found’, his words can be seen to characterize him as an Amalekite, while still portraying the conflict between him and the Jews in religious terms rather than in the ethnic terms that are used in the biblical account. 18 Handel’s Israelite Oratorio Libretti However, despite the conceptualization of exile as harsh captivity as in Racine, the tone of the libretto is generally much more positive than that of the play.

113), Esther urges them to sing a song commemorating the misfortunes of Zion (ll. 129–31). In her prayer before going to the king, Esther describes the people as not only enslaved but threatened with death (ll. 259–60),36 and after her prayer the chorus bewail the destruction of Zion and the scattering of its captive children (ll. 302–4). When Esther finally gets to plead to the king for her people’s life, she paints a picture of them being in irons and suffering persecution from the king (ll. 1108–11).

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Handel’s Israelite Oratorio Libretti: Sacred Drama and Biblical Exegesis by Deborah W. Rooke


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