Esther (Handel)
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Esther is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It is generally acknowledged to be the first English oratorio. Handel set a libretto after the Old Testament drama by Jean Racine. The work was origina
George Frideric Handel
Esther by John Everett Millais
Esther Denouncing Haman by Ernest Normand
London King's Theatre Haymarket, where the 1732 version of "Esther" was first performed
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, was a British landowner and politician who represented Hereford in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 until 1714, when he succeeded to his father's
Esther (Handel)
…early in Handel's English career, and before the body of his success as an opera composer. It was first composed and performed at Cannons, where the Duke of Chandos employed Handel from 1716 - 1718 as resident composer writing for his patron's singers and small orchestra. Little is known about this first version…
Portrait by Michael Dahl, c. 1719
1722 portrait of Chandos by John Vanderbank showing the newly constructed great basin at Cannons in the background.
1726 portrait of Chandos by Herman van der Mijn
Cannons House, Middlesex, England, seat of the Duke of Chandos