Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/39

 THE LIBRETTO.

��enjoyment from it ; and how glad I should be if this were to be the case ! I have now quite finished the first part, and six or eight numbers of the second are already written down. In various places, however, in the second part I require a choice of really fine Scriptural passages, and I do beg of you to send them to me ! I set off to-night for the Rhine, so there is no hurry about them ; but in three weeks I return here, and then I purpose forthwith to take up the work and complete it. Therefore, I beseech 3'ou earnestly to send me by that time a rich harvest of fine Bible texts. You cannot believe how much you have helped me in the first part ; this I will tell you more fully when we meet. On this very account I entreat you to assist me in beautifying the second part also. I have been able to dispense with all historical recitative, and to substitute individual persons ; and I have always introduced an angel, or a chorus of angels, instead of the Lord. By that means the first part, and the largest half of the second, are finely rounded off. Now, however, the second part begins with the words of the Queen, ' So let the gods do to me, and more also,' etc. (i Kings xix., 2) ; and the next words about which I feel secure are those in the scene in the wilderness (same chapter, 4th and following verses) ; but between these I want, first, something more particularly characteristic of the persecution of the prophet ; for example, I should like to have a couple of choruses against him to describe the people in their fickleness and their rising in opposition to him ; secondly, a representation of the third verse of the same passage ; for instance, a duet with the boy, ( 23 ) c

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