History of A Sacred Oratorio: How was popular Christmas music considered scandalous and profane?
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, pre-1808
HISTORY OF A SACRED ORATORIO
The genteel reception accorded the original debut performance stood in marked contrast to the savage hostility which greeted the work less than a year later in the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London. The English aristocracy and churchmen began an unrelenting campaign against the work and its creator. They labeled it “a profanation,” scandalized at
“the sacrilege of converting the Life and Passion of Christ into a theatrical entertainment.”
Some clergymen objected so strongly to the idea of printing the actual title on the program that the author was obliged to announce his great work as “A Sacred Oratorio.”
Sacred Oratorio in London
Covent Garden, London
The city of London was hit on the one hand by fierce propaganda against the work, wherein the Oratorio was denounced as unsuitable and sacrilegious and by those — who never bothered to attend any performances — calling the author
“an insufferable German upstart,” and “a dissolute fellow.”
Tributes to the Author
This was the man of whom Haydn, on hearing the chorus, later said,
“He is the master of us all”
and of whom Beethoven, when asked who was the greatest composer, said,
“to him I bow the knee”
and of whom Mozart said,
“[he] knows better than any of us what will make an effect… When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.”
Yes, the London debut differed significantly from Handel’s enthusiastic and warm reception a year earlier in Dublin when he first performed the sacred oratorio he named “Messiah.”
Sacred Oratorio in Dublin
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin
Indeed, when Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin in 1742 by the choirs of St. Patrick Cathedral (pictured above) and Christ Church Cathedral, demand for tickets was so high that the newspapers made an unusual request.
Editors asked that ladies who planned to attend refrain from wearing hoop skirts and that gentlemen leave their swords at home. This would free up more space and allow more people to be seated.
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
Inspired in part by Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story.”
