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{{Short description|Oratorio by George Frideric Handel}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{italic title}}File:George Frideric Handel by Balthasar Denner.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|George Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric HandelSolomon, HWV 67, is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous libretto – currently thought to have been penned by the English Jewish poet/playwright Moses Mendes (d.1758)Andrew Pink. ‘Solomon, Susanna and Moses : locating Handel's anonymous librettist’. Eighteenth Century Music. Volume 12 / Issue 02 (September 2015) pp. 211-222.; accessed 6 April 2016 – is based on the biblical stories of the wise king Solomon from the First Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles, with additional material from Antiquities of the Jews by ancient historian Flavius Josephus. The music was composed between 5 May and 13 June 1748, and the first performance took place on 17 March 1749, with Caterina Galli in the title role at the Covent Garden Theatre in London, where it had two further performances. Handel revived the work in 1759.WEB, G. F. Handel's Compositions,weblink The Handel Institute, 28 September 2013, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130924012912weblink">weblink 24 September 2013, The oratorio contains a short and lively instrumental passage for two oboes and strings in Act Three, known as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba", which has become famous outside the context of the complete work, and was featured at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony as James Bond (Daniel Craig) goes to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace.WEB, Schwarm, Betsy, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,weblink Britannica.com, 28 April 2014,

Background

The German-born Handel had been resident in London since 1712 and had there enjoyed great success as a composer of Italian operas. His opportunities to set English texts to music had at first been more limited; he had spent the years 1717 to 1719 as composer in residence to the wealthy Duke of Chandos where he had written church anthems and two stage works, Acis and Galatea and Esther; and had composed vocal music to English words for various royal occasions, including a set of Coronation anthems for King George II in 1727, which had made a huge impact.WEB, Kemp, Lindsay, Programme Notes for Saul,weblink BBC, 28 September 2013, {{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In 1731, a performance of the 1718 version of Esther, a work in English based on a Biblical drama by Jean Racine, was staged in London without Handel's participation and had proved popular, so Handel revised the work and planned to have it performed at the theatre where his Italian operas were being presented.However the Bishop of London would not permit a drama based on a Biblical story to be acted out on the stage, and therefore Handel presented Esther in concert form, thus giving birth to the English oratorio.BOOK, Burrows, Donald, Handel (Master Musicians Series), Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition, 2012, 978-0-19-973736-9, {{rp|212}} Such was the success of his oratorios in English that eventually Handel abandoned Italian opera, his last being Deidamia in 1741, and produced a string of masterpieces of oratorio in English.{{citation|last=Hicks|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Hicks|year=2013|work=Grove Music Online|title=Handel, George Frideric|publisher=Oxford University Press}} {{Subscription required}}Opera seria, the form of Italian opera that Handel composed for London, focused overwhelmingly on solo arias and recitatives for the star singers and contained very little else; they did not feature separate choruses. With the English oratorios Handel had the opportunity to mix operatic arias in English for the soloists with large choruses of the type that he used in the Coronation anthems. The oratorios found a wider audience among more social classes than the aristocratic audience who had sponsored and enjoyed Handel's Italian operas.WEB, Martini, Joachim C., Programme notes for "Solomon" HWV 67,weblink www.naxos.com, Naxos Records, 29 April 2014, 31 May 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160531104940weblink">weblink dead, Solomon was widely recognised by commentators of the day as a eulogy for Georgian England, with the just and wise King Solomon representing King George II, and the mighty, prosperous kingdom of Israel reflecting the similarly happy state of England at the time of the work's premiere, in the view of its creators.BOOK, Lang, Paul Henry, George Frideric Handel, 2011, reprint, Dover Books on Music, 978-0-486-29227-4, However, a 21st-century commentator has noted that Solomon was not a great commercial success with London audiences of the time, possibly because of complexities and ambiguities in its portrayal of the central character King Solomon.

Dramatis personae

(File:Gfrasi.jpg|thumb|Giulia Frasi, soprano, creator of several roles in Solomon){| class=wikitableRoles, voice types, and premiere cast}}!Role!!Voice type!!Premiere cast 17 March 1749

	contralto>alto	Caterina Galli

	soprano>|Giulia Frasi

Queen of Sheba>	|Giulia Frasi

	|Giulia Frasi

	mezzo-soprano>|Sibilla Gronamann (Mrs Pinto)

Zadok, the High PriestZadok the Priest, HWV 258, is also the title of one of four Coronation Anthems (Handel)>Coronation Anthems written by Handel for the coronation of George II of Great Britain but apart from its name, the work is unconnected with the Solomon oratorio.	tenor	Thomas Lowe

Levite>	Bass (voice type)>bass	Henry Theodore Reinhold

	|

Chorus of priests, chorus of Israelites

Synopsis

File:Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens -The Judgement of Solomon.jpg|thumb|The Judgement of Solomon after Peter Paul RubensPeter Paul Rubens

Act 1

The work begins with Solomon and his people celebrating the consecration of the Temple he has built in Jerusalem. Solomon rejoices in his married happiness to his one wife (unlike the biblical Solomon, who is stated to have had hundreds of wives and concubines),BOOK, Woodstra, Chris, All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (All Music Guides), September 1, 2005, Backbeat Books, 0879308656, and promises to build his queen a palace for her. They express their love for each other and retire for the night as flower-scented breezes and nightingales' songs lull them to rest.WEB, Knapp, J. Merrill, Programme notes for "Solomon",weblink Opera Today, 28 April 2014,

Act 2

The wisdom of Solomon is presented in the famous biblical story of two harlots who each claimed a single baby as her own. Solomon offers to solve the case by splitting the infant in half with his sword, but the real mother rejects this solution and offers to hand the child over to the other woman, as Solomon knew the true parent would do. The First Harlot and the chorus praise Solomon's judgement.

Act 3

In Act Three we see a state visit from the Queen of Sheba to Solomon's kingdom. The king and his people entertain her with a musical masque of magnificent choruses depicting in turn the "lulling" sound of gentle music, the desire for military glory, the despair of an unhappy lover, and a storm which turns to calm. All celebrate the Israel of the wise ruler Solomon as a Golden Age of peace, happiness, and prosperity.

List of musical numbers

Act Three begins with the very famous sinfonia known as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba".(Note: "Sinfonia" in this context means a purely instrumental piece. "Accompagnato" is a recitative accompanied by the orchestra, rather than by continuo instruments only, as in the passages marked "recitative".){{col-begin}}{{col-3}}

Act One

1. Overture Scene 1: Solomon, Zadok, priests and chorus 2.Your harps and cymbals (chorus) 3.Praise ye the Lord (Levite – air) 4.With pious heart (chorus) 5.Almighty Power (Solomon – accompagnato) 6.Imperial Solomon (Zadok – recitative) 7.Sacred raptures (Zadok – air) 8.Throughout the land (chorus) 9.Bless’d be the Lord (Solomon – recitative) 10.What though I trace (Solomon – air) Scene 2: To them the Queen 11.And see my Queen (Solomon – recitative) 12.Bless’d the day (Queen – air) 13.Thou fair inhabitant of Nile (Solomon, Queen – recitative) 14.Welcome as the dawn of day (Queen Solomon – duet) 15.Vain are the transient beauties (Zadok – recitative) 16.Indulge thy faith (Zadok – air) 17.My blooming fair (Solomon – recitative) 18.Haste to the cedar grove (Solomon – air) 19.When thou art absent (Queen – recitative) 20.With thee th’unshelter’d moor (Queen – air) 21.May no rash intruder ("Nightingale Chorus") (chorus)