Elijah (oratorio) Austrian bass Joseph Staudigl. Mendelssohn had discussed an oratorio based on Elijah in the late 1830s with his friend Karl Klingemann, who had provided him with the libretto for his comic operetta "Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde", which resulted in a partial text that Klingemann was unable to finish. Mendelssohn then turned to , the librettist for his earlier oratorio "St. Paul", who quickly abandoned Klingemann's work and produced his own text that combined the story of Elijah as told in the Book of Kings with psalms. In 1845, the Birmingham Festival commissioned an oratorio from Mendelssohn, who worked with
Leo Edwards (composer) Leo Edwards (composer) Leo Edwards (21 February 1886 – 12 July 1978) was a Broadway composer. He was the brother of Gus Edwards, who was also a Broadway composer. Edwards was born Leo Simon in the German Empire. He appeared in vaudeville and worked for music publishing firms as a staff writer. His Broadway credits include "The Wizard of Oz", "The Blue Paradise", and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1921 and 1923. Edwards co-wrote the popular song "My Fantasy" with Paul Whiteman and Jack Meskill, which is an adaptation of the Polovtsian Dances theme from the