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
Pietro Torri a musician at the imperial court. Along with about 50 operas, Torri wrote serenades, oratorios, cantatas, psalms, and a recorder sonata in C major. His most famous oratorios include the "Triomphe de la paix" composed for the Treaty of Rastatt in 1715 and a "Te Deum" for Maximilian II Emanuel. The rediscovery of Torri and revival of his works is largely due to the German composer Christoph Hammer, a musicologist and performer of early music. Pietro Torri Pietro Torri (ca. 1650 in Peschiera del Garda – 6 July 1737) was an Italian Baroque composer. From 1684 to 1688, Torri served