The Chandos Singers paid tribute to the Handel anniversary by performing this early oratorio. It’s a curious piece, based on one of the biblical episodes that you don’t usually hear about in church; not very much judging under the palm tree, but an awful lot of smiting, one of the more significant pieces of which being carried out by my character, Jael.
Many of the choruses are adapted from earlier works such as Dixit Dominus and the Coronation Anthems, sometimes in a rather disconcerting way so that they veer away from the way you thought you remembered that they went. And I think I now understand some of the point of recitative; it is a useful way of warming up before an aria if you haven’t sung for some minutes.
So that’s Handel, Purcell and Mendelssohn honoured this year – I just need a chance to do some Haydn.