Belshazzar (Handel)
Encyclopedia
Belshazzar is an oratorio
by George Frideric Handel
. The libretto
was by Charles Jennens
, and Handel abridged it considerably. Jennens' libretto was based on the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon
at the hands of Cyrus the Great
and the subsequent freeing of the Jewish nation, as found in the Book of Daniel
.
Handel composed Belshazzar in the late Summer of 1744 concurrently with Hercules
, during a time that Winton Dean calls "the peak of Handel's creative life". The work premiered the following Lenten season on 27 March 1745 at the King's Theatre in London. The work fell into neglect after Handel's death, with revivals of the work occurring in the United Kingdom in 1847, 1848 and 1873.
3. Air, Nitocris: "Thou, God most high, and Thou alone"
4. Recitative, Nitocris and Daniel: "The fate of Babylon, I fear, is nigh."
5. Air, Daniel: "Lament not thus, O Queen, in vain!"
7. Recitative, Gobrias and Cyrus: "Well may they laugh, from meagre famine safe"
8. Accompagnato, Gobrias: "Oh, memory!"
9. Air, Gobrias: "Oppress'd with never-ceasing grief"
10. Air, Cyrus: "Dry those unavailing tears"
11. Recitative, Cyrus: "Be comforted: safe though the tyrant seem"
12. Accompagnato, Cyrus: "Methought, as on the bank of deep Euphrates"
13. Recitative, Cyrus and Gobrias: "Now tell me, Gobrias, does not this Euphrates"
14. Air, Gobrias: "Behold the monstrous human beast"
15. Recitative, Cyrus: "Can ye then think it strange, if drown'd in wine"
16. Air, Cyrus: "Great God, who, yet but darkly known"
17. Recitative, Cyrus: "My friends, be confident, and boldly enter"
18. Chorus of Persians: "All empires upon God depend"
20. Accompagnato, Daniel: "Rejoice, my countrymen! The time draws near"
21. Air, Daniel: "Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed"
22. Chorus of Jews: "Sing, O ye Heav'ns, for the Lord hath done it!"
24. Recitative, Belshazzar and Nitocris: "For you my friends, the nobles of my court"
25. Air, Nitocris: "The leafy honours of the field"
26. Recitative, Belshazzar and Nitocris: "It is the custom, I may say, the law"
27. Chorus of Jews: "Recall, O king, thy rash command!"
28. Recitative, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "They tell you true; nor can you be to learn"
29. Duet, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "O dearer than my life, forbear!"
30. Chorus of Jews: "By slow degrees the wrath of God to its meridian height ascends;"
32. Recitative, Cyrus: "Ye see, my friends, a path into the city"
33. Air, Cyrus: "Amaz'd to find the foe so near"
34. Chorus of Persians: "To arms, to arms, no more delay!"
36. Air, Belshazzar: "Let the deep bowl thy praise confess"
37. Accompagnato, Belshazzar and Babylonians: "Where is the God of Judah's boasted pow'r?"
38. Recitative, Belshazzar: "Call all my Wise Men, Sorcerers, Chaldeans"
39. Symphony (Enter Wise Men of Babylon)
40. Recitative, Belshazzar and Wise Men: "Ye sages, welcome always to your king"
41. Chorus of Babylonians: "Oh, misery! Oh terror, hopeless grief!"
42. Recitative, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "O king, live for ever!"
43. Air, Daniel: "No, to thyself thy trifles be"
44. Accompagnato, Daniel: "Yet, to obey His dread command"
45. Recitative, Nitocris: "Oh, sentence too severe, and yet too sure"
46. Air, Nitocris: "Regard, O son, my flowing tears"
48. Recitative, Cyrus: "You, Gobrias, lead directly to the palace"
49. Chorus of Persians: "O glorious prince, thrice happy they"
51. Recitative, Nitocris and Daniel: "Fain would I hope. It cannot surely be."
52. Air, Daniel: "Can the black AEthiop change his skin"
53. Recitative, Nitocris, Arioch, and Messenger: "My hopes revive, here Arioch comes!"
54. Chorus of Jews: "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth!"
! Thy sweet pow'r"
56. A Martial Symphony (during which a battle is supposed, in which Belshazzar and his attendants are slain)
58. Recitative, Cyrus: "Be it thy care, good Gobrias, to find out"
59. Air, Cyrus: "Destructive war, thy limits know"
60. Duet, Nitocris and Cyrus: "Great victor, at your feet I bow"
61. Recitative, Cyrus and Daniel: "Say, venerable prophet, is there aught"
62. Soli & Chorus: "Tell it out among the heathen"
63. Accompagnato, Cyrus: "Yes, I will rebuild thy city, God of Israel!"
64. Soli & Chorus: I will magnify Thee, O God my king!
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
was by Charles Jennens
Charles Jennens
Charles Jennens was an English landowner and patron of the arts, who assembled the text for five of Handel's oratorios: Saul, Israel in Egypt, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Messiah, and Belshazzar...
, and Handel abridged it considerably. Jennens' libretto was based on the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
at the hands of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
and the subsequent freeing of the Jewish nation, as found in the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
.
Handel composed Belshazzar in the late Summer of 1744 concurrently with Hercules
Hercules (music drama)
Hercules is a Musical Drama in three acts by George Frideric Handel, composed in July and August 1744. The English language libretto was by the Reverend Thomas Broughton, based on Sophocles's Women of Trachis and the ninth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses.-Performance history:Hercules was first given...
, during a time that Winton Dean calls "the peak of Handel's creative life". The work premiered the following Lenten season on 27 March 1745 at the King's Theatre in London. The work fell into neglect after Handel's death, with revivals of the work occurring in the United Kingdom in 1847, 1848 and 1873.
Dramatis Personae
- BelshazzarBelshazzarBelshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon according to the Book of Daniel . Like his father, it is believed by many scholars that he was an Assyrian. In Daniel Belshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of...
, King of BabylonBabylonBabylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
(tenor) - NitocrisNitocrisNitocris has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus and writings of Manetho but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen...
, mother of Belshazzar (soprano) - CyrusCyrus the GreatCyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
, Prince of Persia (alto) - DanielDanielDaniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
, a Jewish prophet (alto) - Gobrias, an AssyriaAssyriaAssyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n Nobleman, revolted to Cyrus (bass) - AriochAriochArioch is a Hebrew name that means "fierce lion". It originally appears in the Book of Genesis chapter 14 as the name of the "King of Ellasar", part of the confederation of kings who did battle with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and with Abraham in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim...
, a Babylonian Lord (tenor) - Messenger (bass)
- Chorus of Wise Men
- Chorus of Jews
- Chorus of Babylonians
- Chorus of Medes and Persians
Act I, Scene 1
2. Accompagnato, Nitocris: "Vain, fluctuating state of human empire!"3. Air, Nitocris: "Thou, God most high, and Thou alone"
4. Recitative, Nitocris and Daniel: "The fate of Babylon, I fear, is nigh."
5. Air, Daniel: "Lament not thus, O Queen, in vain!"
Act I, Scene 2
6. Chorus of Babylonians: "Behold, by Persia's hero made"7. Recitative, Gobrias and Cyrus: "Well may they laugh, from meagre famine safe"
8. Accompagnato, Gobrias: "Oh, memory!"
9. Air, Gobrias: "Oppress'd with never-ceasing grief"
10. Air, Cyrus: "Dry those unavailing tears"
11. Recitative, Cyrus: "Be comforted: safe though the tyrant seem"
12. Accompagnato, Cyrus: "Methought, as on the bank of deep Euphrates"
13. Recitative, Cyrus and Gobrias: "Now tell me, Gobrias, does not this Euphrates"
14. Air, Gobrias: "Behold the monstrous human beast"
15. Recitative, Cyrus: "Can ye then think it strange, if drown'd in wine"
16. Air, Cyrus: "Great God, who, yet but darkly known"
17. Recitative, Cyrus: "My friends, be confident, and boldly enter"
18. Chorus of Persians: "All empires upon God depend"
Act I, Scene 3
19. Air, Daniel: "O sacred oracles of truth"20. Accompagnato, Daniel: "Rejoice, my countrymen! The time draws near"
21. Air, Daniel: "Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed"
22. Chorus of Jews: "Sing, O ye Heav'ns, for the Lord hath done it!"
Act I, Scene 4
23. Air, Belshazzar: "Let festal joy triumphant reign"24. Recitative, Belshazzar and Nitocris: "For you my friends, the nobles of my court"
25. Air, Nitocris: "The leafy honours of the field"
26. Recitative, Belshazzar and Nitocris: "It is the custom, I may say, the law"
27. Chorus of Jews: "Recall, O king, thy rash command!"
28. Recitative, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "They tell you true; nor can you be to learn"
29. Duet, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "O dearer than my life, forbear!"
30. Chorus of Jews: "By slow degrees the wrath of God to its meridian height ascends;"
Act II, Scene 1
31. Chorus of Persians: "See, from his post Euphrates flies"32. Recitative, Cyrus: "Ye see, my friends, a path into the city"
33. Air, Cyrus: "Amaz'd to find the foe so near"
34. Chorus of Persians: "To arms, to arms, no more delay!"
Act II, Scene 2
35. Chorus of Babylonians: "Ye tutelar gods of our empire, look down"36. Air, Belshazzar: "Let the deep bowl thy praise confess"
37. Accompagnato, Belshazzar and Babylonians: "Where is the God of Judah's boasted pow'r?"
38. Recitative, Belshazzar: "Call all my Wise Men, Sorcerers, Chaldeans"
39. Symphony (Enter Wise Men of Babylon)
40. Recitative, Belshazzar and Wise Men: "Ye sages, welcome always to your king"
41. Chorus of Babylonians: "Oh, misery! Oh terror, hopeless grief!"
42. Recitative, Nitocris and Belshazzar: "O king, live for ever!"
43. Air, Daniel: "No, to thyself thy trifles be"
44. Accompagnato, Daniel: "Yet, to obey His dread command"
45. Recitative, Nitocris: "Oh, sentence too severe, and yet too sure"
46. Air, Nitocris: "Regard, O son, my flowing tears"
Act II, Scene 3
47. Air, Cyrus: "O God of truth, O faithful guide"48. Recitative, Cyrus: "You, Gobrias, lead directly to the palace"
49. Chorus of Persians: "O glorious prince, thrice happy they"
Act III, Scene 1
50. Air, Nitocris: "Alternate hopes and fears distract my mind"51. Recitative, Nitocris and Daniel: "Fain would I hope. It cannot surely be."
52. Air, Daniel: "Can the black AEthiop change his skin"
53. Recitative, Nitocris, Arioch, and Messenger: "My hopes revive, here Arioch comes!"
54. Chorus of Jews: "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth!"
Act III, Scene 2
55. Air, Belshazzar: "I thank thee, SesachSheshach
Sheshach - , supposed to be equivalent to Babel ,according to a secret mode of writing among theJews of unknown antiquity, which consisted in substituting thelast letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the first, the last but...
! Thy sweet pow'r"
56. A Martial Symphony (during which a battle is supposed, in which Belshazzar and his attendants are slain)
Act III, Scene 3
57. Air, Gobrias: "To pow'r immortal my first thanks are due"58. Recitative, Cyrus: "Be it thy care, good Gobrias, to find out"
59. Air, Cyrus: "Destructive war, thy limits know"
60. Duet, Nitocris and Cyrus: "Great victor, at your feet I bow"
61. Recitative, Cyrus and Daniel: "Say, venerable prophet, is there aught"
62. Soli & Chorus: "Tell it out among the heathen"
63. Accompagnato, Cyrus: "Yes, I will rebuild thy city, God of Israel!"
64. Soli & Chorus: I will magnify Thee, O God my king!
External links
- Belshazzar libretto on WikisourceWikisourceWikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...
. - Program notes on Belshazzar
- Synopsis of Belshazzar
- Entire libretto
- Score (E-book) of Belshazzar (ed. Friedrich ChrysanderFriedrich ChrysanderKarl Franz Friedrich Chrysander was a German music historian and critic, whose edition of the works of George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a pioneer of 19th-century musicology.Born at Lübtheen, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Chrysander was the son...
, Leipzig 1864)