The dramatic English oratorios of the German-born English composer and organist George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) climaxed the entire baroque oratorio tradition. His Italian operas show a nobility of style and profundity of dramatic insight.

For half a century Handel was England's first composer. His lifelong ambition was to excel in creating Italian operas, and toward that end he developed a highly dramatic style of composition, which is to be found in all his works. Success eluded him during 30 years of Herculean labor to establish Italian opera in England until at last he turned to the creation of English oratorios, sacred and secular, which soon caught on in his adopted land and typify the English high baroque style.

George Frederick Handel (German, Georg Friedrich Händel) was born on Feb. 23, 1685, to Georg and Dorothea Händel in Halle. To study music he had to overcome his father's...