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
Paul Verhoeven (German director) Paul Verhoeven (German director) Paul Verhoeven (, Unna, Westphalia – ) was a German actor, writer, and film and theatre director. He had 13 siblings and the family lived in modest circumstances. He directed and acted in over 50 films, and wrote over 20 film scripts, the first of which was "Das kleine Hofkonzert" in 1935, an operetta with music by Edmund Nick based on a comedy by Verhoeven and . From 1945 to 1948 he was artistic director at the Residenz Theatre/Staatsschauspiel in Munich. Verhoeven was married to the actress Doris Kiesow, with whom he had three children: Lis