Solomon (Handel)

Theatre at Covent Garden where Solomon was first performed

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.[4] 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.[5]^: 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[7]

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".)

"Solomon" is richly orchestrated by the standards of its day, calling for an orchestra of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, strings, and basso continuo instruments. Many of the grand and varied choruses are in eight parts ("a double chorus") instead of the more usual four parts.[8] The final number of Act I is the chorus “May no rash intruder”, usually called the Nightingale Chorus, with flutes imitating birdsong over a gentle rustling effect created by strings divided into numerous different parts.[8] Act 3 begins with the very famous sinfonia known as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba", a bright and sprightly orchestral piece featuring oboes which has often been used outside the context of the oratorios as a processional piece.[3] Sir Thomas Beecham is believed to have given the name "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" to this sinfonia, perhaps in 1933 when he made a recording of it, or perhaps in 1955 when he recorded the oratorio in an abridged and re-orchestrated form.

• Libretto at Stanford University
• Solomon: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Score, Deutsche Händelgesellschaft (German Handel Society), 1867