Israel in Egypt – Handel
Israel in Egypt
George Frideric Handel adopted the oratorio style out of necessity: He had made a good living in England as an opera promoter (and sometime composer), but in the 1730’s Italian opera had lost much of its appeal. Both Handel and his competitors were victims of the popularity of The Beggar’s Opera, first produced in London in 1728, which satirized grand opera and even appropriated some of his tunes. (The English still are masters of satire!) Handel kept trying to bring back opera—his last attempts were in the early 1740’s—but, needing bread on his table, the naturalized Briton turned to oratorio, which could provide drama without the live action. In October of 1738, having just completed one oratorio on a Biblical theme—Saul—the 53-year-old native of Saxony wrote a second, Israel in Egypt, in about two weeks. Both debuted in 1739; the first performances were not resoundingly successful, but initial public puzzlement over Israel later melted into admiration (H. C. Robbins Landon calls it “the greatest choral work of Handel’s career”). Some authorities believe Handel intended to utilize a previously composed anthem as the first movement of this work, but as presented here, this oratorio consists of only two parts: The first, most of which comes from the Biblical account in Exodus, tells the story of the oppression of the Hebrew people in Egypt, and their escape, although Handel (probably acting as his own librettist) interspersed references to that story from Psalms as well. The second part—which Handel wrote first—consists of Exodus Chapter 15, verses 1- 21, known as the “Song of Moses”, rejoicing over the triumph. Only the final lines of that text, attributed in the scripture to Miriam the prophetess, appear to actually date from that early time; a later poet expanded on the same theme. Parts of verse 18, praising Jehovah, recur in the last five pieces of the oratorio.
The story of Israel in Egypt is familiar Judeo-Christian history. The Hebrew tribes of Israel entered Egypt voluntarily, probably about 1600 B.C.E., at the invitation of Joseph (of the Technicolor Dreamcoat), the kidnapped son of Jacob. Joseph had become a high official in the Pharaonic administration. Under Egyptian rule, the Israelites initially prospered, and their numbers multiplied over three centuries—the scriptures say 600,000; that number presumably counts only adult males. With changes in succession of the Pharaohs, however, Hebrews were disenfranchised and enslaved. Moses, Hebrew by birth, the adopted son of a Pharaonic queen (possibly Hatshepsut, queen to Thutmose II, or, alternatively, the daughter of Rameses II; the date of the Exodus is uncertain by at least two hundred years), as a young man was a loyal Egyptian subject and possibly a military leader. He fled Egypt— scriptures lay his exit to a quarrel, but he may have fled the ascendance of an unfriendly Pharaoh (Thutmose III?)— and spent 40 years in the wilderness. He reluctantly returned at age 80, to lead the Hebrews, and confronted Pharaoh. Attempts at negotiation first resulted in a backlash, whereupon Moses initiated a series of ten plagues, targeting particularly sacred aspects of Egyptian culture: The Nile, the sacred river, was first: Its waters turned to blood and became unpalatable. Then came frogs, lice, flies, locusts, cattle disease, boils, hail, a ‘great darkness’, and– the crushing blow– the death of Egypt’s firstborn sons. Pharaoh’s magicians tried to demonstrate that these plagues were tricks—they succeeded in replicating the bloody river and in invoking frogs—but the continuing curses broke Pharaoh’s will, and, in a moment of weakness, he approved the Hebrews’ departure. (In fact, the Egyptians ceded “silver and gold’ to the Hebrews to ensure their exit, a fact Handel included in his libretto.) Pharaoh subsequently changed his mind and dispatched an army to overtake the Hebrews, but Moses’ charges escaped across the Red Sea on sand laid bare by a strong east wind; the army and its chariots, attempting to follow, bogged down in the sand and were wiped out when the waters returned. Modern explanations can be found for the plagues, and even for the sea crossing; however, the concurrence of these events, and Moses’ foreknowledge of them, certainly rank as miracles, whatever the explanation.
Like Messiah, Handel’s Israel in Egypt is somewhat atypical among his oratorios: It contains relatively little solo material (which suggested the use of a narrator, which Prof. Martínez uses in this performance). Also unusual is the extensive use of double choruses, with the themes alternately echoed and reinforced. The work nonetheless exhibits Handel’s opera-honed dramatic sense, not only in choral climaxes but also in orchestral textures that paint the scenery for the story. The hailstorm begins with a few small missiles, and rises to a roar as the chorus enters; frogs hop through the king’s chambers before being announced; and, as the chorus tells of the locusts without number, they can be heard buzzing furiously in the orchestra. In the second part of the oratorio, the exultant themes convey the essence of songs of victory of every age and culture.
The Chorus and the Downers Grove Choral society jointly performed Israel in Egypt sixteen years ago.
– Jim Fancher – 2014