Abimelech (oratorio)

Abimelech is an oratorio in three acts written by Christopher Smart and put to music by Samuel Arnold.

After God intervenes in a dream, Sarah, who was previously barren, is restored to Abraham and made fertile.

[2] However, his previous oratorio only lasted a few nights, and Smart hoped that his second could succeed where the other failed.

[1] This would be the last work in Smart's final years that was written completely for adults.

He was bred by the celebrated Kit Crazy, who rode flying Pegasus the great Match round the Hop-Garden and who is universally allowed to be a SMART Fellow, and a tolerable Psalmodist.

[10] However, there is also an emphasis on the impious actions of the Gentiles of Gerar and of their inability to love properly,[11] especially when Hagar sings: As the oratorio continues, there is emphasis that only those who follow the true God are capable of understanding the proper ways to act.

[14] Later, Thomas Busby claimed that "the applause obtained by this his second oratorical production [Abimelech], established the reputation of its composer [Arnold]".