Oratorio credited with writing the first English language oratorio, "Esther". Handel's imitators included the Italian Lidarti who was employed by the Amsterdam Jewish community to compose a Hebrew version of "Esther". Britain continued to look to Germany for its composers of oratorio. The Birmingham Festival commissioned various oratorios including Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1846, later performed in German as "Elias". German composer Georg Vierling is noted for modernizing the secular oratorio form. John Stainer's "The Crucifixion" (1887) became the stereotypical battlehorse of massed amateur choral societies. Edward Elgar tried to revive the genre around the turn of century with the composition
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Vilnius 1766 and only fragments survive to the present day. With the loss of the altar, imagery of Saint Paul diminished significantly within the church. The altar as such was not replaced. Instead, Kazimierz Jelski sculpted four prophets (Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Elijah) while Franciszek Smuglewicz painted the large central painting depicting the emotional final parting of Saint Peter and Paul. Four other paintings hang in the choir: another painting by Smuglewicz depicting Archangel Michael, painting of Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, a formal portrait of founder Michał Kazimierz Pac, and a painting of crucified Jesus. This painting depicts a solar