‘Look! […] Things People Can’t See!’ Wordbooks, Reader-Listenership, and Invisible Theatre in Handel’s Oratorios

In eighteenth-century England, anyone attending an opera, an oratorio, or even a church service would typically have had a printed ‘wordbook’ made available to them to read during the performance. Such wordbooks, whether available for purchase or distributed free of charge, contained the words to be sung (the libretto), usually with translations if necessary, and sometimes also explanatory footnotes, prefaces or plot summaries, or lists of dramatis personae. Examining several oratorios of George Frideric Handel, especially Saul and Theodora, this article asks how the wordbook influenced the drama of a performed work and to what extent this impact made it necessary to have an actively reading audience. The article also explores the use of stage directions in oratorio wordbooks, arguing that they provide rich opportunities for the audience’s imagination by suggesting images that the performance alone cannot provide (since English oratorio probably included no stage action). It notes the wordbook’s necessity in determining which singer is portraying which character, as well as the expressive and dramatic use to which these character identifications can be put. And it compares the practices of different oratorio librettists, suggesting great sensitivity to the unique imaginative power of the oratorio-with-wordbook medium

Drama · Oratorio · Diverse Musicological Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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