Quote:
Originally Posted by Handel
All vocal works in english from 1738 to his death (with exception The Choice of Hercules) were called oratorio.
However, works like Semele and Hercules do not have the structure of an oratorio.
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Traditionally Oratorio is reserved for works of a religious or at least highly moral subject. Semele and Hercules are operas in all but name, but then you could say that about Susanna and Theodora for example.