A biblical oratorio about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The libretto is based on the biblical books of Exodus and the Psalms, probably prepared for the stage by Charles Jennens. Jennens was Händels patron and as such he helped him create many oratorios, like this one, and more notably The Messiah.
Parts of this work were also used for the very first musical recording, made during the Händel festival in London’s Crystal Palace in June 1888. Or so we thought until quite recently: in 2008 audio historians managed to reconstruct a recording on a so called phonautograph made in 1860. Still, the incident was interesting for the London audience, and was written about in The Guardian, who still keeps a copy of the article on their website.