Though Naxos is marketing this as a work by Handel, it is in fact a pastiche by John Christopher Smith who 'borrowed' music from Handel�s operas, oratorios and other works. I suppose you would kindly describe Smith as an 'opportunist', who finding he had inherited Handel's scores from his father - who had acted as the composer's copyist - was not slow in using them for his own financial gain. He enlisted the help of Thomas Morell to supply a suitable libretto to fit the chosen music, and used various sources in creating the musical story. It relates the legend of the pious and steadfast Tobit (Tobias the elder) who becomes blind and sends his son also called Tobit to collect money owed. A guiding hand passes him through trials and tribulations until he arrives back home able to cure his father's blindness, and everyone lives happily thereafter. It is a quite extensive score of similar length to Messiah, Smith, offering a semblance of creativity, adding the music for recitatives. He was not shy of cherry-picking from works that would have been popular at the time, the score opening with the overture to the opera, Tamerlano. Today most of the works have fallen from the repertoire, and we might even show gratitude to Smith for his recycling act. Sung in English - I think - by an international cast from both sides of the Atlantic, and I am vocally impressed by the Canadian soprano, Linda Perillo, a singer specialising in this era, and by the tenor, Knut Schoch, an expert in Baroque performance. Maya Boog is at times troubled in fast decorative passages, and after an early period of edgy intonation, Barbara Hannigan settles into a pleasing light voice. The Choir sounds fresh and energetic, while the Frankfurt Baroque produces that sound we would have heard in Handel's time. There are few mishaps in the one 'live' performance that gave rise to the recording made in 2001, the sound quite close but with a warm ambience. This is the only available recording.