Thomas Hengelbrock conducts Israel in Egypt

Oratorio for King's Theatre

That one of the crown jewels of the English choral repertoire is the result of a disastrous premiere and a radical renovation seems almost impossible to believe. Yet that is essentially the genesis of Israel in Egypt: an oratorio that Georg Friedrich Handel wrote for London's King's Theatre. In an attempt to translate the Bible narrative into trendy music drama, Handel filled a three-part construction with impressive choral numbers and a handful of arias.

Complete make-over

The public did not like the unusual - and resolutely un-Italian - recipe and forced the composer back to the writing desk. Using fragments of his own existing music and material by colleagues such as Stradella and Kerll, Handel gave the score a complete makeover. Almost two decades later, Israel in Egypt - now a diptych with extra arias - was given a new chance. With some of the most swinging passages in the Baroque repertoire, this triumph of choral writing and rhetoric is now on many a Handel favourite list.