[58] Performed, with the original French words and Mendelssohn's music, before the Queen, and at the instigation of the Prince Consort, at Windsor Castle, on New Year's Day, 1847. This was the first performance of "Athalie" in England.
[59] It may be interesting to give the original English words (as sung at Birmingham) of this well-known air.
Adagio.—"Hear ye, Israel; hear what the Lord speaketh: 'Ah! had'st thou heeded my commandments!' He to His people calleth; yet they regard not His voice, nor will they obey His call.
Recit.—Yet to the righteous, saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel;
Allegro.—I, I am he that comforteth, and ye are mine. Wake up, arise, Jerusalem! Say, who art thou that despairest, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker; who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the earth's foundations? Wake up, arise, Jerusalem!"
[60] "Lift thine eyes" was originally written as a duet for soprano and contralto, and in this form it was sung at Birmingham by the Misses Williams. Mendelssohn, according to the late Mr. Lazarus, was very desirous that there should be no break between the trio, "Lift thine eyes," and the succeeding chorus, "He, watching over Israel." His special direction at the end of the trio, "Attacca, No. 29," shows the importance he attached to the connecting of these two numbers—the trio and the chorus of angels.
[61] The opera of "The Tempest," which Mr. Lumley, in his opera prospectus of 1847, announced as having been "expressly composed for Her Majesty's Theatre," by Mendelssohn.
[62] The music examples in this letter refer to the Soprano air "Hear ye, Israel," No. 21.
[63] Bartholomew had written:
