I’ve booked tickets to see Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah next month, and so am trying hard to get the music into my head, in order to heighten the appreciation of the live performance, and to not expose my ignorance. But it’s a struggle. It’s not as sweet as Handel’s Messiah, and the airs and recitatives and choruses feel somewhat clunky and discordant. Maybe it’s Mendelssohn. Maybe I’m just a pleb.

Apparently when Mendelssohn was scratching around for an idea after the success of his first composition St Paul, a friend suggested an ‘Elijah’, a ‘St Peter’, or even an ‘Og of Bashan’. The first suggestion was taken up, the second never got started, and the third was surely made tongue-in-cheek. Og is hardly one of the significant characters of the Bible, and the Biblical information amounts to this: He was a giant who ruled over sixty cities, slept in an extra-king-size bed, and opposed Moses in his advance to the Promised Land.

One wonders what any composer would do with that. Perhaps a jeering duet: ‘Og made his bed for the last time.’ Then a bold quartet: ‘God is not afraid of giants.’ Followed by a booming chorus: ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall.’ Then maybe a sweet air: ‘God looks upon the heart, and sees not as man sees.’ And the grand finale: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’ There’s the libretto. Composers, over to you.