oratorio

The Pulitzer that Marsalis won in 1997 for his two-and-a-half-hour jazz oratorio, “Blood on the Fields,” was historic: since the jury started honoring music in 1943, they’d never recognized jazz, only classical composers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Boyer’s multimedia oratorio, “A Hundred Years On,” was given its premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra last month at the orchestra’s outdoor summer home, the Mann Center.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

“Messiah,” an Easter oratorio beloved for Christmas, suggests Christ’s meaning rather than clearly tracing his life.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

Despite dealing with an oratorio, “The Choral” is more of a medley, briefly touching on one theme after another, but never convincingly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025

Beethoven, inspired by study of and admiration for Handel and Bach, merely had the idea of appending to a symphony something you might expect in an oratorio.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

George Frideric Handel wrote some 42 operas across his career — his unstaged oratorios such as “Messiah” constitute a separate category — but Seattle Opera has presented only three of these to date.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 6, 2023

A recent performance of “Solomon” at Carnegie Hall was a reminder of the sumptuous power of Handel’s English oratorios, his genre of concert-format, loosely plotted, often biblically inspired works that made choruses the stars.

From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023

Generally sacred in subject, not meant to be staged, and organized as unruffled parades of tableaus more than sustained plots, these oratorios were at the time viewed as more populist than opera.

From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

But common to both tellings, as well as the dozens of operas, oratorios, plays and films since derived from the myth of Iphigenia, is that she’s not the one who gets to tell the story.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 2, 2021

Nothing could be further from the omnipotent, benevolent creative force of Handel’s oratorios or Bach’s cantatas and Passions - yet Handel was still alive, just, and Bach had only died five years earlier.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall