Over a period of some twenty years, from the late 1720s, Handel composed a series of virtuoso arias using only the words ‘Allelujah’ and ‘Amen’ as his texts. They were probably for use in private worship, and take their place in the tradition of ‘Divine Song’ established by Purcell and other composers. Here they receive their first recordings, set in a context of contemporary sacred song and instrumental music, with the accompaniment provided by the beguiling sound of two theorbos and chamber organ. They are heard here in the extraordinarily dramatic timbres of a male-soprano voice – perhaps as close as modern listeners can come to the vocal acrobatics of the castrati who so amazed their own audiences.

Robert Crowe has worked for over 25 years as a male soprano, was a 1995 National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition and has sung over 70 leading roles in operas and dramatic oratorios in the United States and across Europe. He holds a PhD in historical musicology from Boston University, his dissertation focusing on the life and times of the last operatic castrato, Giovanni Battista Velluti.

Victor Coelho, Professor of Music at Boston University and Director of the Center for Early Music Studies, is a performer and musicologist specialising in the Renaissance as well as popular music.

David Dolata is Professor of Musicology at the Florida International University School of Music in Miami, he has served as visiting research professor at Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR) in Tours, France, and maintains a long-standing affiliation with the Center for Early Music Studies of Boston University.

Juvenal Correa-Salas is a Chilean-born organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and teaches at the Florida International University School of Music. As a composer, he has been commissioned to write works for choir, orchestra, solo piano, ballet and chamber ensemble, as well as incidental electronic music for theatre and dance.