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
Christus. Mysterium in a Prelude and Three Oratorios Christus. Mysterium in a Prelude and Three Oratorios Christus: Ein Mysterium in einem Vorspiele und drei Oratorien is a musical composition by Felix Draeseke consisting of a prelude and three oratorios completed in September 1899. It was Felix Draeseke's most impressive accomplishment and took him over thirty years to prepare and five years to compose. It spans opus numbers 70-73. Beginning as early as the 1860s, Draeseke and his brother-in-law, the Reverend Adolf Schollmeyer, began gathering ideas for the project. According to the composer's own program notes: "Christus" was premiered in Berlin in 1912, with Bruno Kittel conducting. Later that