Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Handel: Joshua

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

George Frideric Handel often introduced his English language oratorios to the public during Lent. Joshua, for instance, was first performed on March 9, 1748 and was accounted a success. Joshua takes its story from the sixth book of the Old Testament. Thomas Morell's libretto graphically depicts the destruction of Jericho by the Israelites' military hero, providing Handel the opportunity for the tub-thumping, grand and glorious martial music which English audiences loved. The chorus "See the conqu'ring hero comes" became so popular Handel decided to insert it into his Judas Maccabaeus (1747). Joshua was revived again and again to the end of the eighteenth century and occasionally into the nineteenth at least as late as 1839, both in England and on the European continent, but it was forgotten about thereafter. The overwhelming popularity of Judas Maccabaeus seems to have overshadowed it.

Hear Joshua in all its glory today as recorded in 1990 with Robert King leading the period instrument King's Consort and the Choir of New College, Oxford. The choir includes boy trebles with the adult choristers. Joshua is tenor John Mark Ainsley. There's a boy treble soloist who takes the part of the Angel. Originally released in the UK by Hyperion in 1991, this recording was licensed for reissue in the US in 1998 through the now defunct Musical Heritage Society. The MHS compact discs I last drew upon for presentation on Sunday, February 10, 2008.