Is it necessary to hit bottom in order to attain the sublime? Handel, at a low point in his life, must have thought this when he received the libretto by Charles Jennens for an oratorio, almost as if the Saviour himself had ordered its composition! His operas which had once enjoyed such popularity at the royal courts were no longer “selling”. The poet’s words transformed him: he wrote this “Messiah” in 24 days (and nights), giving birth to a work that constituted a sort of testament of the Baroque genius. After its performance in Dublin in 1742 it took London by storm the following year, and it is said that the king himself stood for the famous “Hallelujah” chorus: a gesture that has become custom in contemporary England.
