The history of the composition of the oratorio is odd: the kernel of this three-part work were the movements from the middle section, the “Flight to Egypt,” which Berlioz composed on a whim in 1850 and which he passed off as the work of a baroque composer whose existence he himself had invented. In 1854 the triptych, which was completed with the parts entitled “The dream of Herodes” and “The arrival at Sais,” had its celebrated first performance. Starting from the Gospel of St. Matthew, with th...