and he tells her the King has followed his Prime Minister's advice to order the extermination of the Jews. He asks Esther to appeal to her husband to rescind the order, but she explains that it is forbidden upon pain of death to approach the King without being sent for. She decides to take this risk anyway and goes to see the King, who pardons her breach of protocol in approaching him without invitation and offers to grant any petition she asks. Esther only requests that the King and Haman will attend a banquet hosted by herself. At the dinner, Esther reminds the King that Mordecai had saved his life and reveals her Jewish origin. She tells the King that the order to exterminate the Jews is directed against Mordecai and herself. Haman had prepared a gallows on which to hang Mordecai, but the King orders Haman himself to be executed there. The Jews give thanks to God for their deliverance. Musical features Notable among the arias is "Tune your harps with cheerful noise", with pizzicato string accompaniment; an actual harp is used in the orchestra in the following aria. The work ends with a lengthy and grandiose choral movement. Oratorio (1732) By 1731, Handel had spent more than ten years composing Italian operas for London and presenting seasons of his operas at London theatres. There was no system of royalties or copyright at that time, and a copy of the score of Esther having been obtained, the 1720 version was performed, apparently in a staged version, by boy singers of the Chapel Royal at the Crown and Anchor tavern, a popular venue for music, and was very successful. A member of the Royal Family asked Handel to present Esther at the theatre where his operas were performed, but the Bishop of London, Edmund Gibson, would not permit Biblical stories to be acted out upon the stage. Therefore, Handel decided to present Esther in concert form as an addition to the 1732 opera season, with the singers currently appearing in the Italian operas but no scenery or stage action, and in a revised three-act form with additional text by Samuel Humphreys. The work was extremely popular and thus the form of the English oratorio was invented, almost by accident. The coronation anthems Handel had written for the coronation of George II in 1727, with their large orchestra and massed choruses,