The Issue of Handel’s Collaboration with the Librettists for his Oratorios
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Abstract
The article is devoted to the issue of Handel’s collaboration with the librettists for his oratorios as one of the most important for the comprehension of his creative process. By revealing the diverse relationships of the composer with literati, the author demonstrates, how in intensive combined work during the times of Handel’s mature and late periods fundamentally important features had crystallized: tragic intensification of the plot, conveyance of feelings of catastrophism and, in connection with this, the deepening of the psychological essence of the main protagonists. Most of Handel’s librettists comprehended their librettos through the prism of predicatory pathos. This was manifested especially distinctly in the late oratorios, in which lamenting and religious tendencies prevailed, having comprised two sides of the ethical-psychological issue. His music standing at the pinpoint of the aesthetics of Classicism connected with the Enlightenment, the composer presented himself not only an active participant in the creation of his librettos, but also as a conceptual leader who directed the creative process in collaboration with the librettists.
Keywords: Georg Friedrich Handel, Charles Jennens, Thomas Morell, Newburgh Hamilton, Thomas Browton, James Miller, librettos for oratorios, librettists, tragedy/tragic.
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