Handel's most loyal and enthusiastic supporters, Mary Delany, wrote to her sister Ann saying "Don't you remember our snug enjoyment of "Theodora?" Her sister replied "Surely "Theodora" will have justice at last, if it was to be again performed, but the generality of the world have ears and hear not". There are two surviving quotes of Handel about Theodora. Morell quotes Handel as saying "The Jews will not come to it because it is a Christian story; and the ladies will not come because it is a virtuous one." Handel's colleague Charles Burney took note when two musicians asked for free tickets for Messiah and Handel responded "Oh your servant, meine Herren! you are damnable dainty! you would not go to Theodora – there was room enough to dance there, when that was perform!" Theodora was actually Handel's favorite of his oratorios. The composer himself ranked the final chorus of act 2, "He saw the lovely youth", far beyond" "Hallelujah" in Messiah. It has sometimes been staged as an opera, as in 1996 Glyndebourne and 2009 Salzburg Festival productions. Both of them were recorded and released as DVDs. The original libretto included an extra scene in which Septimius converted to Christianity himself, but it was never set by Handel, though it was printed. The second scene in act 2 was also subject to several revisions by Handel. Dramatis personae Synopsis Act 1 The 4th century AD. Valens, the Roman governor of Antioch, issues a decree that in honour of Diocletian's birthday all citizens will offer sacrifice to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and Flora, a fertility goddess of the spring, on pain of death, and puts Septimius in charge of enforcing this. Didymus, a soldier secretly converted to Christianity, asks that citizens whose consciences prevent them making sacrifices to idols be spared punishment, which Valens dismisses. Septimius suspects Didymus is a Christian and affirms his own loyalty to the law although he pities those who will be condemned to die by the decree and wishes he could be allowed to extend mercy to them. Theodora, a nobly born Christian and her friend Irene are worshipping with their fellow believers in private rather than joining in the festival for the emperor's birthday when a messenger brings news of Valens' decree. Septimius comes to arrest them – Theodora expects to be put to death but is informed that instead she has