Search - Handel, Christophers, The Sixteen :: Alexander's Feast

Alexander's Feast isn't really an oratorio. It's an "ode," one of those things where everyone sits around at the dinner table and talks about the Meaning of Life and Art. In other hands, this could be quite drearily pretentious. Handel, however, always the most entertaining of composers, has designed a marvelous sequence of arias and choruses that makes the most out of what the text has to offer. It's not as dramatic as his oratorios with a clear plot line, but the music's just as good, and so is this performance. --David Hurwitz