Handel's Israelite Oratorio Libretti by Deborah W. Rooke (2012 hardcover)

Handel's Israelite Oratorio LibrettiSacred Drama and Biblical Exegesis\nAuthor(s): Deborah W. Rooke\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Oxford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780199279289, 978-0199279289\nSynopsis\nHandel's Israelite oratorios are today little known among non-specialists, but in their own day they were unique, pioneering and extremely popular. Dating from the period [tel], they combine the musical conventions of Italian opera with dramatic plots in English that are adaptations of Old Testament narratives. They constitute a form of biblical interpretation, but to date, there has been no thoroughgoing study of the theological ideas or the attitudes towards the biblical text that might be conveyed in the oratorios' libretti. This book aims to fill that gap from an interdisciplinary perspective. \n\nCombining the insights of present-day biblical studies with those of Handelian studies, Deborah W. Rooke examines the libretti of ten .