Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera.

He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste. Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Musically Messiah is rich in arias and chorus sections, and the structure is concise and full of contrast.

Handel’s Messiah had its premiere in 1742 in a secular Dublin music hall to great acclaim with a packed audience and Handel continued to adapt it for later performances, often shaping the work to the choirs or individual singers available. Messiah proved to be one of his most popular works, and after his death became a favourite of massed choirs around the world far beyond the scale of Handel’s original.