A Letter to Handel on his "Israel in Egypt" Oratorio

It was Wednesday April 18, 1739. It was a beautiful morning when George Frederick Handel received a letter in the mail. It was from an unknown writer. It as only marked as "Sir, etc." He wrote praising Handel's work in his Oratorio, Israel in Egypt.  Granted, he had one request-he wanted the choir to have more professional sounding singers. The singers who performed the night the anonymous singer was present, there was apparent laughter in the audience. He wrote,

"I can't conclude, Sir, without great Concern at the Disadvantage so great a Master laborers under, with respect to the many of his Vocal Instruments, which fall so vastly short in being able to do Justice to what they perform; and which, if executed in a manner worthy of it, would receive so great Advantage. This consideration will make a human Mind serious, where a lighter Mind would be otherwise affected [i.e., would be amused at the bad singing, as so many Londoners in fact were.] I shall concede with this Maxim, 'That in Public Entertainments every one should come with a reasonable Desire of being entertain'd themselves, or with the polite Resolution, no ways to interrupt the Entertainment of others..."(1)

With due haste, Handel did fix the issue and made it a top priority to do so. Handel's music has been taken very seriously in all performances throughout history after his death, and a part of me wonders how much this may have contributed to that. 

1. Piero Weiss & Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents, 2nd ed., "Some Contemporary Documents Relating to Handel's Oratorios," (Schirmer Cengage Learning: Belmont, CA, 2008), 208.