Belshazzar (Handel)

George Frideric Handel

Belshazzar (HWV 61) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The libretto was by Charles Jennens, and Handel abridged it considerably.[1] Jennens' libretto was based on the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus the Great and the subsequent freeing of the Jewish nation, as found in the Book of Daniel.

Handel composed Belshazzar in the late Summer of 1744 concurrently with Hercules, during a time that Winton Dean calls "the peak of Handel's creative life".[2] It premiered the following Lenten season on 27 March 1745 at the King's Theatre, London.[1] It fell into neglect after Handel's death, with revivals in the United Kingdom in 1847, 1848 and 1873.[3] With the revival of interest in Baroque music and historically informed musical performance since the 1960s, Belshazzar receives performances in concert form today and is also sometimes fully staged as an opera. Among other performances, Belshazzar was staged at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2008[4] and by the Zurich Opera in 2019.[5]

  1. ^ a b G.F. Handel, "Belshazzar", ed. Friedrich Chrysander. Leipzig: 1864. Reprint by Kalmus Miniature Scores. Melville, NY: Belwin Mills.
  2. ^ Dean, Winton. Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. pp. 435
  3. ^ Macfarren, G. A., "Handel's Belshazzar" (1 June 1873). The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, 16(364): p. 115.
  4. ^ "Success and faliure [sic] in oratorio stagings". Gramophone. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  5. ^ Batschelet, Sarah. "A cauldron of confusion: Handel's Belshazzar staged in Zürich". bachtrack.com. Retrieved 11 December 2019.