George Frideric Handel: Judas Maccabeus, HWV 63

Judas Maccabeus is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746). Morell’s libretto is based on the deuterocanonical 1 Maccabees (2-8), with motives added from the Antiquitates Judaicae by Flavius Josephus.