Esther – The First English Oratorio

Steadily establishing a reputation as specialists in music from the Enlightenment era, Opera dei Lumi return to the Ushaw College with a rare performance of the very first English oratorio: Handel's masterpiece Esther. This sacred drama follows the biblical narrative in which the King of Persia decides the fate of the Jewish people through the extension of his golden sceptre. Using the earliest performable version from 1720, Opera dei Lumi explore Handel's skillful synthesis of English pastoral and Italian operatic styles that would become the hallmark for the English oratorio tradition that followed.