Alexander Balus An Oratorio. [Hwv 65]. [Full Score] Handel, George Frideric 1685-1759 New Arrivals

Folio. Half dark blue leather with blue cloth boards, spine in gilt-ruled compartments, titling gilt. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto table and advertisement, verso blank), 1f. (recto dedication to King George II dated 31 October 1739, verso blank), 94 pp. Dedication typeset, otherwise engraved throughout. The music includes the overture, arias, choruses, and two accompanied recitatives (pp. 89 and 93). Named singers include Sigra. Galli, Sigra. Sibilla, Sigra. Casarine, Mr. Reinhold, and Mr. Lowe. With ownership inscription "G. Chippindale 1869" in pencil to front pastedown. Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped. Title lightly stained; occasional light soiling and foxing to margins; verso of final leaf soiled and browned; tear and loss to lower margin of p. 79, not affecting music or text; verso of final leaf browned and soiled. First Edition, second issue. Smith p. 89, no. 2. BUC p. 432. RISM H449. First performed in London at Covent Garden on 23 March 23 1748, with text by Thomas Morell, who also collaborated with Handel on Judas Maccabaeus. Alexander Balus is Handel's "attempt to deal with an operatic subject in oratorio form, sympathetically relating the doomed love of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra for the Syrian king Alexander, with choral interpolations for the merry Syrians and the solemn Israelites colourfully characterized in the music." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online.