A benefit performance for Handel on March 28, 1738, contained a composition advertised solely as An Oratorio. The mixture of English and Italian texts in this work continues Handel's practice in the preceding years of using texts in the native language of whatever singers happened to be available. Although Handel routinely assembled self-pasticcio operas in the 1730s, the 1738 Oratorio seems to be the only occasion in which he did this in oratorio form. Handel's pasticcio operas are listed in the appendix to HWV as A1 to A14, and A15 is used for instrumental minuets derived from opera arias; the 1738 Oratorio is worthy of inclusion as A16.

Works: Handel: An Oratorio (1738) (passim), Israel in Egypt (18, 33-24, 36), Esther (23, 37), Athalia, HWV 52 (27).

Sources: Handel: Chapel Royal Anthem, HWV 251c (17, 33), Athalia, HWV 52 (17-18, 21, 33, 35), Deborah, HWV 51 (22, 29, 34-37), My heart is inditing (22-24), Esther, HWV 50 (23-24, 33-34, 36-37), Silete Venti, HWV 242/3 (33-34), Cecilia volgi un sguardo, HWV 89 (37), Carco sempre di Gloria, HWV 87 (37), Coronation Anthem, HWV 258 (37).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Felix Cox