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But after Handel abandoned writing those operas, the 1740s were defined for him by oratorios like “Messiah,” “Hercules,” “Judas Maccabaeus” and “Semele,” which Bicket and the English Concert performed in 2019 as part of their richly rewarding Handel series at Carnegie.

“See the Conquering Hero,” from his oratorio “Judas Maccabaeus,” is now a Hanukkah song for children called “Hava Narima.”

We ended the service with an old Methodist rabble-rouser, “Thine Be the Glory, Risen Conquering Son,” sung to a tune from Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus.”

First performed in 1747, Judas Maccabaeus was among Handel's most popular works in the 18th and 19th centuries, though nowadays we are apt to regard it as among his most controversial.

This Messianic expectation had been a fermenting leaven since the great days of Judas Maccabaeus.