Handel's Israel in Egypt
by
Lyn Bronson
Handel was a composer who
understood marketing. When he arrived in England in 1710, audiences were mad
about Italian opera, so he filled the demand and became rich and famous. But, by
1730, as taste for Italian opera waned, he was quick to adapt by blending
Italian oratorio with the drama of opera and creating the choral oratorio.
“Israel in Egypt,” the fifth of the nineteen oratorios Handel composed, was
written in a mere twenty-seven days in 1739. At its first performance in April
1739, public response was cool, and it survived only a few performances. Why was
it such a failure? It seems clear now that even though the vogue of Italian
opera was declining at the time, a substantial part of his audience were still
opera lovers and weren’t particularly enthusiastic about a music drama composed
mostly of choruses — the fact that there weren’t enough arias and pretty Italian
sopranos didn’t go down too well, either. The final miscalculation had to do
with the text, for British conservatives were not entirely happy with the
concept of a secular work performed in a secular venue, but based entirely on a
biblical text.
Fashions change, and by the end
of the 19th century, “Israel in Egypt” gained popularity only second
to “Messiah” and is finally recognized for what it is — a great work where the
chorus (or, more accurately, double chorus) reigns supreme. Yes, there are a few
arias and recitatives, but it is the writing for chorus that is so amazing, for
there are fugues and double fugues, melismas that would tax even the most
professional singer and glorious outpourings of sound that threaten to overwhelm
the orchestra. I don’t mean to slight the orchestration, however, for Handel has
given us a richly developed and complex score that serves the music well.
In the Friday night Main
Concert, we heard “Israel in Egypt” as it is most often performed, omitting part
1, and only presenting part 2 (Exodus) and part 3 (Moses’ Song). William Jon
Gray conducted the Festival Orchestra, Chorale and Chorus, and it would be
impossible to overstate how very professionally and magnificently he managed to
keep everything under control. This was the best choral singing we have heard so
far in the Festival — balance was superb, diction was so clear that we could
even have gotten along without the supertitles, and the rhythmic precision
achieved by so many singers was superb.
Soloists for this production
were sopranos: Susan Consoli, Colleen Hughes, Angelique Zuluaga, and Mary
Richardson; altos: Elizabeth Johnson, Jay White, Kathryn Leemhuis and Daniel
Bubeck; tenors: Matthew Anderson, Ryan turner and Sean Fallen; and basses:
Sumner Thompson and Douglas Williams.
If this performance was as good
as it was during the first week of the Festival, what will it be like when it is
even more seasoned during the third week, since the wonderful singers in the
Chorale and Chorus have set themselves a very high standard indeed.
