Transition to Oratorios
What is an oratorio?
The exact definition of the oratorio varies, and so must any account of Handel’s experiments in the genre. But for him the shift from opera to oratorio consisted of writing musical dramas in English rather than Italian, usually with an important role for a chorus, often based on Biblical stories, and containing little or no staging.
Handel’s oratorio career spanned over thirty years, overlapping with his opera career. Its beginning was reluctant and sporadic, but over time it came to demand his full concentration, as he split his time between composing new works and reviving and directing old ones for oratorio seasons. His audience also resisted at times, but eventually he dispelled any doubts about the potential of unstaged drama. He amassed a healthy fortune, and was a respected man until the end of his life, though failing health eventually limited his personal role in the performances.
The genre was advantageous artistically and financially, as Handel soon realized. Oratorios required no sets, costumes, or expensive foreign singers, and the musical experience was heightened by the inclusion of a chorus. Also the stories were more conducive to heavy drama than they had been in the operas, usually resulting in music of greater depth.
There are over twenty oratorios, most of them dramatic; that is, having characters rather than only narration. Messiah, the most famous, is an exception, as is Israel in Egypt. Most of them were based on Biblical stories, but not all. Semele, Hercules, and Acis and Galatea have their roots in classical mythology, and Theodora the story of a martyr during Roman times. Handel’s final oratorio, Jephtha, was completed in 1751.