On this page you will find a resumé of the story, and the full text
Resumé
PART ONE
Elijah proclaims the coming of a drought sent by God upon the Israelites: a vivid orchestral overture depicts with driving intensity the effects of the ensuing famine. The chorus enter with a desperate cry for relief; their pleas are taken up in a moving duet (Zion spreadeth her hands for aid). Obadiah exhorts the people to cast out their idols, and attempts to reassure them of God’s grace (If with all your hearts), but the people continue to bewail God’s apparent determination to punish them (Yet doth the Lord see it not).
An Angel bids Elijah to go into the desert, where God will provide for him (For he shall give his angels over thee). The Angel then sends him to a widow woman who will sustain him with food sent from God, but Elijah arrives to find the widow in great distress, lamenting over her lifeless son (What have I to do with thee?). Elijah calls upon the Lord to send down his spirit on the boy, and when his prayers are answered, the widow recognises Elijah as a true man of God. The chorus sing of God’s goodness (Blessed are the men who fear him).
With the drought nearing the end of its third year, Elijah summons Ahab, the ruler of the Israelites, and accuses him of leading the people astray by his devotion to the false god Baal. He summons the prophets of Baal to a trial of strength: they are to present a calf for sacrifice but must leave the firewood under it unlit. Whichever deity answers his followers and sends flames to burn the offering will be proclaimed the one true god.
As the people call again and again on Baal without success, Elijah taunts them with sarcastic goading (‘Call him louder…he is in a journey, or peradventure, he sleepeth…’): the people’s impassioned cries become ever more frantic but are greeted only with silence. Elijah now steps forward and in a moving aria calls upon God to reveal himself (Lord God of Abraham); a choir of angels take up his prayer (Cast thy burden upon the Lord). At once a fire bursts into life on the altar, at which the people throw themselves down in reverence to God. Elijah orders them to slay the false prophets of Baal, an instruction to which they eagerly assent. Elijah and the alto soloist in turn sing of the woe that will fall upon those who turn their backs on God (‘Is not his word like a fire’ – ‘Woe unto them’).
Elijah now calls upon God to send rain to end the drought, sending a youth up to look out for clouds: at first he sees nothing, but at last a tiny cloud appears on the horizon, followed swiftly by an almighty deluge. Part One ends with the torrents roaring in the river beds and the people exultantly praising God for their deliverance (Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land).
PART TWO
The soprano reminds the people of God’s enduring comfort towards them (Hear ye, Israel); they respond with an affirmation of their newly restored faith (Be not afraid). Elijah again denounces Ahab but is now confronted by Queen Jezebel, who incites the people to seize and kill Elijah (Woe to him!). Obadiah warns him to flee into the wilderness; Elijah despondently assents. His despair at his apparent failure finds expression in the heartbreaking aria ‘It is enough’, which clearly echoes ‘Es ist vollbracht’ (‘It is finished’), the aria which comes at the moment of Christ’s death in Bach’s St John Passion. Exhausted, Elijah sinks into sleep: angels come to watch over him (Lift thine eyes – He, watching over Israel).
An angel now commands Elijah to make the long journey to the Mount of Horeb. Elijah protests that his labours are in vain, but the Angel counsels patience and trust in God’s purpose (O rest in the Lord – He that shall endure to the end). As night falls, the Angel warns him that he is about to enter the presence of God. A thrilling chorus, the climax of the oratorio (Behold, God the Lord passed by!) describes in turn a mighty wind, earthquake and fire; the Lord is however contained by none of these but instead by ‘a still small voice’. A choir of Seraphim around the throne of God sing of his glory (Holy, holy, holy), before Elijah goes on his way, his faith and sense of purpose restored (For the mountains shall depart). The great works he goes on to perform in God’s name are described by the chorus (Then did Elijah), before he is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Soloists and chorus then sing in turn of God’s goodness, wisdom and mercy (Then shall the righteous break forth – But the Lord from the north has raised one – O come every one that thirsteth), before a shining final chorus (And then shall your light break forth) triumphantly affirms God’s greatness.
Libretto: the text of the Oratorio in full
ELIJAH: AN ORATORIO by Felix Mendelssohn,
Original German version derived from the Lutheran Bible by Julius Schubring English version by William Bartholomew
PART ONE
Introduction (bass) ELIJAH: As God the Lord of Israel liveth, before whom I stand: there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Overture
No.1: Chorus THE PEOPLE: Help, Lord! Wilt Thou quite destroy us? The harvest now is over; the summer days are gone, and yet no power cometh to help us. Will then the Lord be no more God in Zion?
Recitative (chorus) The deeps afford no water and the rivers are exhausted. The suckling’s tongue now cleaveth for thirst to his mouth. The infant children ask for bread and there is no one breaketh it to feed them.
No.2: Duet (two sopranos) and Chorus THE PEOPLE: Lord, bow Thine ear to our prayer. TWO WOMEN: Zion spreadeth her hands for aid and there is neither help nor comfort.
No.3: Recitative (tenor) OBADIAH: Ye people, rend your hearts and not your garments for your transgressions, even as Elijah hath sealed the heavens through the word of God. I therefore say to ye: forsake your idols, return to God; for He is slow to anger and merciful and kind and gracious, and repenteth Him of the evil.
No.4: Aria (tenor) OBADIAH: “If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find me”: thus saith our God. Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come before His presence.
No.5: Chorus THE PEOPLE: Yet doth the Lord see it not: He mocketh at us. His curse hath fallen down upon us. His wrath will pursue us till He destroy us. For He, the Lord our God, He is a jealous God; and He visiteth all the fathers’ sins on the children to the third and the fourth generation of them that hate Him. His mercies on thousands fall – on all them that love Him and keep His commandments.
No.6: Recitative (contralto) ANGEL: Elijah! Get thee hence, Elijah! Depart and turn thee eastward: thither hide thee by Cherith’s brook. There shalt thou drink its waters, and the Lord thy God hath commanded the ravens to feed thee there; so do according unto His word.
No.7: Chorus ANGELS: For He shall give His angels charge over thee, that they shall protect thee in all the ways thou goest; that their hands shall uphold and guide thee, let thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Recitative (contralto) ANGEL: Now Cherith’s brook is dried up, Elijah, arise and depart and get thee to Zarephath. Thither abide, for the Lord hath commanded a widow woman to sustain thee, and the barrel of meal shall not waste; neither shall the curse of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain on the earth.
No. 8: Recitative and Aria (soprano) THE WIDOW: What have I to do with thee, oh man of God? Art thou come to me to call my sin until remembrance? To slay my son art thou come hither? Help me, man of God: my son is sick and his sickness is so sore that there is no breath left in him. I go mourning all the day long; I lie down and weep at night. See mine affliction! Be thou the orphan’s helper!
Recitative (bass and soprano) ELIJAH: Give me thy son! Turn unto her, oh Lord my God: in mercy help this widow’s son. For Thou art gracious and full of compassion and plenteous in mercy and truth. Lord my God, let the spirit of this child return, that he again may live.
THE WIDOW: Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee?
ELIJAH: Lord my God, oh let the spirit of this child return, that he again may live.
THE WIDOW: The Lord hath heard thy prayer: the soul of my son reviveth.
ELIJAH: Now behold: thy son liveth.
THE WIDOW: Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that His word in thy mouth is the truth. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?
ELIJAH: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Oh blessed are they who fear Him!
No.9: Chorus Blessed are the men who fear Him: they ever walk in the way of peace. Through darkness riseth light to the upright. He is gracious, compassionate; He is righteous.
No.10: Recitative (bass and tenor) and Chorus ELIJAH: As God the Lord of Sabaoth liveth, before whom I stand: three years this day fulfilled I will shew myself unto Ahab, and the Lord will then send rain again upon the earth.
AHAB: Art thou Elijah? Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
THE PEOPLE: Thou art Elijah; thou he that troubleth Israel!
ELIJAH: I never troubled Israel’s peace: it is thou, Ahab, and all thy father’s house. Ye have forsaken God’s commands, and thou hast follow’d Baalim. Now send and gather to me the whole of Israel unto Mount Carmel: there summon the prophets of Baal and also the prophets of the groves who are feasted at Jezebel’s table. Then we shall see whose God is the Lord.
THE PEOPLE: And then we shall see whose God is the Lord!
ELIJAH: Rise then, ye priests of Baal: select and slay a bullock and put no fire under it. Uplift your voices and call the god ye worship; and the god who by fire shall answer, let him be God.
THE PEOPLE: Yea, and the god who by fire shall answer, let him be God!
ELIJAH: Call first upon your god: your numbers are many. I, even I only, remain one prophet of the Lord. Invoke your forest gods and mountain deities.
No.11: Chorus PROPHETS OF BAAL: Baal, we cry to thee: hear and answer us! Heed the sacrifice we offer! Hear us, Baal! Hear, mighty god! Baal, oh answer us! Baal, let thy flames fall and extirpate the foe!
No.12: Recitative (bass) and Chorus ELIJAH: Call him louder, for he is a god. He talketh, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth: so awaken him. Call him louder! PROPHETS OF BAAL: Hear our cry, oh Baal: now arise! Wherefore slumber?
No.13: Recitative (bass) and Chorus ELIJAH: Call him louder: he heareth not. With knives and lancets cut yourselves after your manner. Leap upon the altar ye have made: call him and prophesy! Not a voice will answer you; none will listen, none heed you.
PROPHETS OF BAAL: Baal! Hear and answer, Baal! Mark how the scorner derideth us!
ELIJAH: Draw near, all ye people: come to me!
No.14: Aria (bass) ELIJAH: Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, this day let it be known that Thou art God and that I am Thy servant. Lord God of Abraham, oh show to all this people that I have done these things according to Thy word. Oh hear me, Lord, and answer me. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, oh hear me and answer me, and show this people that Thou art Lord God and let their hearts again be turned.
No.15: Chorus Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. He never will suffer the righteous to fall: He is at thy right hand. Thy mercy, Lord, is great and far above the heavens. Let none be made ashamed that wait upon Thee.
No.16: Recitative (bass) and Chorus ELIJAH: Oh Thou who makest Thine angels spirits; Thou whose ministers are flaming fires: let them now descend!
THE PEOPLE: The fire descends from heaven! The flames consume his offering! Before Him upon your faces fall! The Lord is God! Oh Israel hear: our God is one Lord and we will have no other gods before the Lord. ELIJAH: Take all the prophets of Baal and let not one of them escape you. Bring them down to Kishon’s brook and there let them be slain.
THE PEOPLE: Take all the prophets of Baal and let not one of them escape us: bring all and slay them!
No.17: Aria (bass) ELIJAH: Is not His word like a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces? For God is angry with the wicked every day. And if the wicked turn not, the Lord will whet His sword; and He hath bent His bow and made it ready.
No.18: Aria (contralto) Woe, woe unto them who forsake Him! Destruction shall fall upon them for they have transgressed against Him. Though they are by Him redeemed, yet they have spoken falsely against Him; from Him they have fled.
No.19: Recitative (tenor) OBADIAH: Oh man of God, help thy people! Among the idols of the Gentiles, are there any that can command the rain or cause the heavens to give their showers? The Lord our God alone can do these things.
Recitative (bass) and Chorus ELIJAH: Oh Lord, Thou hast overthrown Thine enemies and destroyed them. Look down on us from heaven, oh Lord: regard the distress of Thy people. Open the heavens and send us relief. Help, help Thy servant now, oh God.
THE PEOPLE: Open the heavens and send us relief. Help, help Thy servant now, oh God!
ELIJAH: Go up now, child, and look toward the sea. Hath my prayer been heard by the Lord?
CHILD: There is nothing. The heavens are as brass: they are as brass above me.
ELIJAH: When the heavens are closed up because they have sinned against Thee, yet if they pray and confess Thy name and turn away from their sins when Thou dost afflict them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin. Help, send Thy servant help, oh God.
THE PEOPLE: Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin. Help, send Thy servant help, oh God!
ELIJAH: Go up again and still look towards the sea.
CHILD: There is nothing. The earth is as iron under me .
ELIJAH: Hearest thou no sound of rain? Seest thou nothing arise from the deep?
CHILD: No, there is nothing.
ELIJAH: Have respect to the prayer of Thy servant, oh Lord my God! Unto Thee will I cry, Lord my rock: be not silent to me and Thy great mercies remember, Lord!
CHILD: Behold, a little cloud ariseth now from the waters: it is like a man’s hand. The heavens are black with cloud and with wind; the storm rusheth louder and louder.
THE PEOPLE : Thanks be to God for all His mercies.
ELIJAH: Thanks be to God for He is gracious and His mercy endureth for evermore.
No.20: Chorus THE PEOPLE: Thanks be to God: he laveth the thirsty land. The waters gather; they rush along. They are lifting their voices. The stormy billows are high: their fury is mighty, but the Lord is above them and almighty.
PART TWO
No.21: Aria (soprano) Hear ye, Israel: hear what the Lord speaketh: “Oh, hadst thou heeded my commandments!” Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to him oppressed by tyrants; thus saith the Lord: “I am He that comforteth. Be not afraid, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Say, who art thou, that thou art afraid of a man that shall die and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations? Say, who art thou?”
No.22: Chorus “Be not afraid!” saith God the Lord, “Be not afraid: thy help is near!” God the Lord, thy God, saith unto thee: “Be not afraid!” Though thousands languish and fall beside thee, and tens of thousands around thee perish, yet still it shall not come nigh thee.
No.23: Recitative (bass and contralto) and Chorus ELIJAH: The Lord hath exalted thee from among the people and over his people Israel hath made thee King. But thou, Ahab, hast done evil to provoke Him to anger above all that were before thee, as if it had been a light thing for thee to walk in the sins of Jeroboam. Thou hast made a grove and an altar to Baal and served him and worshipped him. Thou hast killed the righteous and also taken possession; and the Lord shall smite all Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and He shall give Israel up, and thou shalt know He is the Lord.
THE QUEEN: Have ye not heard he hath prophesied against all Israel? (chorus) We heard it with our ears.
THE QUEEN: And why hath he spoken in the name of the Lord? Doth Ahab govern the kingdom of Israel while Elijah’s power is greater that the king’s? The gods do so to me and more if, by tomorrow about this time, I make not his life as the life of one of them whom he hath sacrificed at the Brook of Kishon. (chorus) He shall perish!
THE QUEEN: Hath he not destroyed Baal’s prophets? Yea, by the sword he destroyed them all. (chorus) He destroyed them all!
THE QUEEN: He also closed the heavens and called down a famine upon the land. (chorus) He also closed the heavens and called down a famine upon the land.
THE QUEEN: So go ye forth and seize Elijah, for he is worthy to die. Slaughter him! Do unto him as he hath done!
No.24: Chorus Woe to him! He shall perish, for he closed the heavens. Any why hath he spoken in the name of the Lord? Let the guilty prophet perish! He hath spoken falsely against us and our land, as we have heard with our ears. So go ye forth: seize on him! He shall die!
No.25: Recitative (tenor and bass) OBADIAH: Man of God, now let my words be precious in thy sight. Thus saith Jezebel: “Elijah is worthy to die”. So the mighty gather against thee and they have prepared a net for thy steps, that they may seize thee; that they may slay thee. Arise then, and hasten for thy life; to the wilderness journey. The Lord thy God doth go with thee. He will not fail thee; He will not forsake thee. Now be gone and bless me also.
ELIJAH: Though stricken, they have not grieved. Tarry here my servant: the Lord be with thee. I journey hence to the wilderness.
No.26: Aria (bass) ELIJAH: It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life for I am not better than my fathers. I desire to live no longer. Now let me die, for my days are but vanity. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have broken Thy covenant and thrown down Thine altars and slain all Thy prophets – slain them with the sword. And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away.
No.27: Recitative (tenor) See, now he sleepeth beneath a juniper tree in the wilderness; but the angels of the Lord encamp round about all them that fear Him.
No.28: Chorus ANGELS: Lift thine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh help. Thy help cometh from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He hath said thy foot shall not be moved; thy Keeper will never slumber.
No.29: Chorus: He, watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps. Shouldst thou, walking in grief, languish, He will quicken thee.
No.30: Recitative (contralto and bass) ANGEL: Arise Elijah, for thou hast a long journey before thee. Forty days and forty nights shalt thou go to Horeb, the mount of God.
ELIJAH: Oh Lord, I have laboured in vain. Yea, I have spent my strength for naught. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens; that Thou wouldst come down; that the mountains would flow down at Thy presence to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries through the wonders of Thy works. Oh Lord, why has Thou made them to err from Thy ways and hardened their hearts that they do not fear Thee? Oh that I now might die!
No.31: Aria (contralto) ANGEL: Oh rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him; and He shall give thee thy heart’s desires. Commit thy way unto Him and trust in Him, and fret not thyself because of evil-doers.
No 32: Chorus He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.
No.33: Recitative (bass and soprano) ELIJAH: Night falleth round me, oh Lord. Be Thou not far from me. Hide not Thy face, 0h Lord, from me: my soul is thirsting for Thee, as a thirsty land.
ANGEL: Arise now: get thee without. Stand on the mount before the Lord, for there His glory will appear and shine on thee. Thy face must be veiled, for He draweth near.
No.34: Chorus Behold, God the Lord passed by, and a mighty wind rent the mountains around, brake in pieces the rocks – brake them before the Lord. But yet the Lord was not in the tempest. Behold, God the Lord passed by, and the sea was upheaved and the earth was shaken. But yet the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there came a fire, but yet the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came a still small voice, and in that still voice onward came the Lord.
No.35: Recitative (contralto) Above Him stood the Seraphim and one cried to another:
Chorus “Holy, holy, holy is God the Lord, the Lord Sabaoth. Now His glory hath filled all the earth.”
No.36: Recitative (chorus) Go, return upon thy way! For the Lord yet hath left Him seven thousand in Israel, knees which have not bowed to Baal. Go, return upon thy way! Thus the Lord commandeth.
Recitative (bass) ELIJAH: I go on my way in the strength of the Lord. For Thou art my Lord and I will suffer for Thy sake. My heart is therefore glad; my glory rejoiceth, and my flesh shall also rest in hope.
No.37: Aria (bass) ELIJAH: For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but Thy kindness shall not depart from me, neither shall the covenant of Thy peace be removed.
No.38: Chorus Then did Elijah the prophet break forth like a fire: his words appeared like burning torches. Mighty kings by him were overthrown. He stood on the mount of Sinai and heard the judgments of the future, and in Horeb its vengeance. And when the Lord would take him away to heaven, lo, there came a fiery chariot with fiery horses; and he went by a whirlwind to heaven.
No.39: Aria (tenor) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in their heavenly Father’s realm. Joy on their head shall be for everlasting, and all sorrow and mourning shall flee away for ever.
No.40: Recitative (soprano) Behold, God hath sent Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children unto their fathers, lest the Lord come and smite the earth with a curse.
No.41: Chorus But the Lord from the north hath raised one, who, from the rising of the sun, shall call upon His name and come on princes. Behold my servant and mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. On him the Spirit of God shall rest – the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of might and counsel, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
The next item is the only one being omitted in the performance on 18th March in Birkenhead.
Quartet (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass) Oh come everyone that thirsteth; Oh come to the waters; come unto Him. Oh hear, and your souls shall live for ever.
No.42: Chorus And then shall your light break forth as the light of morning breaketh; and your health shall speedily spring forth then; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Lord, our Creator, how excellent Thy Name is in all the nations. Thou fillest heaven with Thy glory. Amen.