Compiled by John Christopher Smith, the son of Handel’s long-time assistant, the oratorio or sacred drama Nabal, sometimes described as a pastiche, provided a winning synthesis of religion and entertainment at a time when newly minted oratorios, drawing chiefly on biblical subjects, were in vogue. Religion (the events described take place after the death of Samuel, Samuel I.25), Italianate melodies, strong choral writing and demonstrable dramatic sense are all present in Nabal, the recitatives presumably the work of Smith, while the arias are largely borrowed from Handel’s operas, oratorios, anthems and cantatas.