It’s a bit of a thing with me.  I tend to prefer staged versions of the Handel English language oratorios to the Italian operas.  I know it’s a view I share with quite a few singers, including Ryan McDonald and Anna Sharpe with whom I was chatting about it on the weekend.   But, it would seem, this opinion is not shared by opera house managements  (not to be confused with audiences!).

A quick whiz through Operabase for the last twelve months produced the following global statistics:

• 19 major Handel works were staged around the world.  14 of these were Italian operas and 5 were English oratorios.
• The number of productions skews even more.  38 productions of the operas versus just 7 for the oratorios.
• The most often featured operas were Giulio Cesare and Serse with 7 productions each and Alcina with 6.
• The only oratorio to get more than one run was Semele with 3.  Jephtha, Theodora, Saul and Hercules got a single run each.

Note that I only included productions listed as “staged” and Operabase’s coverage usually only includes fully professional companies.  I excluded Acis and Galatea and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo because I wasn’t sure how to categorize them.

There’s no clear pattern in terms of what’s. performed where.  The English language works are no more likely to be performed in an English speaking country than, say, Germany.

I’m a bit sad that the English oratorios don’t get staged more often.  I think they contain some of Handel’s best music.  Free from the formal constraints of opera seria he often finds a degree of melodic invention that he expresses, almost Purcell like, in a less affected way.  I think that’s why singers like them so much.  One can sound beautiful without artificial pyrotechnics.  The format also allows for more duets etc which are a bit lacking in the operas.They stage well too.  The storylines in, say, Theodora or Hercules, seem less outlandish than the worked over plots drawn from Ariosto or Gerusalemme liberata. And, for the most part, the oratorios are shorter.  Surely a consideration in today’s opera world.

I’m curious to know what others think.