A dramatic account of the fall of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the first Persian empire, and the ensuing freeing of the Jewish nation as told by Daniel, the noble youth of Jerusalem, is the subject of Handel's oratorio, composed during the peak of his creative life. After falling into neglect after Handel's death, 21st-century revivals of this splendid music have been presented in Zurich and Aix-en-Provence. A central and guiding character of Queen Nitocris, the mother of Belshazzar, encourages the story's triumphant ending.