Oratorio’ and ‘Judas Maccabæus’ in 1747; ‘Joshua’ in 1748, ‘Solomon’ and ‘Susannah’ in 1749, ‘Theodora’ in 1750, ‘The Choice of Hercules’ in 1750, and ‘Jephthah,’ his last oratorio, in 1752. During the composition of ‘Jephthah,’ his failing eyesight became so troublesome that he submitted to several operations for cataract, which, however, were unsuccessful and total blindness ensued. During the period of about twenty years in which Handel’s oratorios were written, the oratorio itself passed through practically all the phases of development from the simple form in which Carissimi left it to the massive structure of his (Handel’s) later oratorios. During this period he had practically no competition; indeed, in the field of concert oratorio there is no one between Carissimi and Haydn who approaches him in greatness. The early Italian oratorio (including Handel’s earliest ones) consisted largely of vocal solos in the prevalent Italian operatic style. Scant attention was given to the chorus. As Handel delivered himself more and more in this form, he drew the line of demarcation more clearly between oratorio and opera. He elevated the chorus to an exalted position as the most effective and characteristic medium for the utterance of the sublime and epic thoughts so appropriate to the oratorio, and this feature has been largely maintained in oratorio since Handel’s time. To be sure, he frequently employed a distinctly operatic style (as in the familiar aria ‘Rejoice greatly’ from the ‘Messiah’), but in general he differentiated between the two forms and firmly established the permanent lines on which modern oratorio has developed. It should be borne in mind that oratorio is not, and never has been, church-music, but concert-music. Its first use, though frequently associated with church services, was distinctly extra-liturgical. It is not even necessarily religious music and it is worthy of note in this connection that the majority of Handel’s choral works are secular. Several of his early oratorios--‘Esther’ and ‘Deborah,’ as well as the serenata, ‘Acis and Galatea’--were performed, as was the early custom in Italy, with costume and stage scenery and action. English church authorities frowned on this practice, however, and Handel discontinued it, but he retained the dramatic element throughout all of his career as an oratorio writer; in fact ‘Samson’ possesses so much real dramatic action that it might well be staged for full operatic performance.