This is a pretty magnificent oratorio that might best be described by the word sumptuous.
Though only a small part of it was semi-familiar to me before hearing it, I think this is probably the greatest thing of Handel’s I have encountered to date. It certainly feels much more musically complex than most of his other stuff, which has always struck me as being Baroque-light.
I am a big fan of this and it is causing me to rethink his work.
9/10
- Act One
- Overture
- Scene 1: Solomon, Zadok, priests and chorus
- Your harps and cymbals (chorus)
- Praise ye the Lord (Levite – air)
- With pious heart (chorus)
- Almighty Power (Solomon – accompagnato)
- Imperial Solomon (Zadok – recitative)
- Sacred raptures (Zadok – air)
- Throughout the land (chorus)
- Bless’d be the Lord (Solomon – recitative)
- What though I trace (Solomon – air)
- Scene 2: To them the Queen
- And see my Queen (Solomon – recitative)
- Bless’d the day (Queen – air)
- Thou fair inhabitant of Nile (Solomon, Queen – recitative)
- Welcome as the dawn of day (Queen Solomon – duet)
- Vain are the transient beauties (Solomon – recitative)
- Indulge thy faith (Zadok – air)
- My blooming fair (Solomon – recitative)
- Haste to the cedar grove (Solomon – air)
- When thou art absent (Queen – recitative)
- With thee th’unshelter’d moor (Queen – air)
- May no rash intruder (“Nightingale Chorus”) (chorus)
- Act Two
- Scene 1: Solomon, Zadok, Levite, chorus of priests and Israelites
- From the censer curling rise (chorus)
- Prais’d be the Lord (Solomon – recitative)
- When the sun o’er yonder hills (Solomon – air)
- Great prince (Levite – recitative)
- Thrice bless’d that wise discerning king (Levite – air)
- Scene 2: To them an attendant
- My sovereign liege (Attendant, Solomon – recitative)
- Scene 3: To them the two harlots
- Thou son of David (First harlot – recitative)
- Words are weak (First and second harlot, Solomon – trio)
- What says the other (Solomon, second harlot – recitative)
- Thy sentence, great king (Second harlot – air)
- Withhold, withhold the executing hand (First harlot – recitative)
- Can I see my infant gor’d (First harlot – air)
- Israel attend (Solomon – accompagnato)
- Thrice bless’d be the king (First harlot, Solomon – duet)
- From the east unto the west (chorus)
- From morn to eve (Zadok – recitative)
- See the tall palm (Zadok – air).
- No more shall armed bands (First harlot – recitative)
- Beneath the vine (First harlot – air)
- Swell, swell the full chorus (chorus)
- Scene 1: Solomon, Zadok, Levite, chorus of priests and Israelites
- Act Three
- Sinfonia (“Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”)
- Solomon, Queen of Sheba, Zadok, chorus of Israelites
- From Arabia’s spicy shores (Queen of Sheba, Solomon – recitative)
- Ev’ry sight these eyes behold (Queen of Sheba – air)
- Sweep, sweep the string (Solomon – recitative)
- Music spread thy voice around (Solomon and chorus)
- Now a different measure (Solomon and chorus)
- Then at once from rage remove (Solomon – recitative)
- Draw the tear from hopeless love (chorus)
- Next the tortur’d soul release (Solomon – recitative)
- Thus rolling surges rise (Solomon and chorus)
- Thy harmony’s divine (Queen of Sheba – recitative)
- Pious king (Levite – air)
- Thrice happy king (Zadok – recitative)
- Golden columns (Zadok – air)
- Praise the Lord (chorus)
- Gold now is common (Solomon – recitative)
- How green our fertile pastures look (Solomon – air)
- May peace in Salem (Queen of Sheba – recitative)
- Will the sun forget to streak (Queen of Sheba – air)
- Adieu, fair queen (Solomon – recitative)
- Ev’ry joy that wisdom knows (Queen of Sheba, Solomon – duet)
- The name of the wicked (chorus)