Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

==Background==
The composer [[George Frideric Handel]], born in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]] in [[Brandenburg-Prussia]] (modern Germany) in 1685, took up permanent residence in London in 1712, and [[Handel's Naturalisation Act 1727|became a naturalised British subject in 1727]].<ref name= OMO/> By 1741 his pre-eminence in British music was evident from the honours he had accumulated, including a pension from the court of [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]], the office of Composer of Musick for the [[Chapel Royal]], and—most unusually for a living person—a statue erected in his honour in [[Vauxhall Gardens]].<ref>Luckett, p. 17</ref> Within a large and varied musical output, Handel was a vigorous champion of Italian opera, which he had introduced to London in 1711 with ''[[Rinaldo (opera)|Rinaldo]]''. He subsequently wrote and presented more than 40 such operas in London's theatres.<ref name= OMO>{{cite book|last= Lynam|first= Peter|title= Handel, George Frideric|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e3115?q=Handel&hbutton_search.x=19&hbutton_search.y=9&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=27&_start=26|series= Grove Music Online|year=2011|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-957903-7|access-date= 15 June 2011|url-access= subscription|archive-date= 3 July 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200703055352/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3115|url-status= live}}</ref>

[[File:BLW Handel.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Statue erected in Handel's honour, in [[Vauxhall Gardens]], London; now in the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]]]
By the early 1730s public taste for Italian opera was beginning to fade. The popular success of [[John Gay]] and [[Johann Christoph Pepusch]]'s ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'' (first performed in 1728) had heralded a spate of English-language ballad-operas that mocked the pretensions of Italian opera.<ref>Steen, p. 55</ref> With box-office receipts falling, Handel's productions were increasingly reliant on private subsidies from the nobility. Such funding became harder to obtain after the launch in 1730 of the [[Opera of the Nobility]], a rival company to his own. Handel overcame this challenge, but he spent large sums of his own money in doing so.<ref>Steen, pp. 57–58</ref>

Although prospects for Italian opera were declining, Handel remained committed to the genre, but as alternatives to his staged works he began to introduce English-language oratorios.<ref name="Burrows 1991, p. 4">Burrows (1991), p. 4</ref> In Rome in 1707–08 he had written two Italian oratorios at a time when opera performances in the city were temporarily forbidden under [[Pope Clement XI|papal]] decree.<ref>Burrows (1991), p. 3</ref> His first venture into English oratorio had been ''[[Esther (Handel)|Esther]]'', which was written and performed for a private patron in about 1718.<ref name="Burrows 1991, p. 4"/> In 1732 Handel brought a revised and expanded version of ''Esther'' to the [[Her Majesty's Theatre|King's Theatre, Haymarket]], where members of the royal family attended a glittering premiere on 6 May. Its success encouraged Handel to write two more oratorios (''[[Deborah (Handel)|Deborah]]'' and  ''[[Athalia (Handel)|Athalia]]''). All three oratorios were performed to large and appreciative audiences at the [[Sheldonian Theatre]] in Oxford in mid-1733. Undergraduates reportedly sold their furniture to raise the money for the five-[[shilling (British coin)|shilling]] tickets.<ref>Luckett, p. 30</ref>

In 1735 Handel received the text for a new oratorio named ''[[Saul (Handel)|Saul]]'' from its [[librettist]] [[Charles Jennens]], a wealthy landowner with musical and literary interests.<ref>Luckett, p. 33</ref> Because Handel's main creative concern was still with opera, he did not write the music for ''Saul'' until 1738, in preparation for his 1738–39 theatrical season. The work, after opening at the King's Theatre in January 1739 to a warm reception, was quickly followed by the less successful oratorio ''[[Israel in Egypt]]'' (which may also have come from Jennens).<ref>Luckett, pp. 38–41</ref> Although Handel continued to write operas, the trend towards English-language productions became irresistible as the decade ended. After three performances of his last Italian opera ''[[Deidamia (opera)|Deidamia]]'' in January and February 1741, he abandoned the genre.<ref>Burrows (1991), pp. 6–7</ref> In July 1741 Jennens sent him a new libretto for an oratorio; in a letter dated 10 July to his friend [[Edward Holdsworth]], Jennens wrote: "I hope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other subject. The Subject is Messiah".<ref name= B10/>