Kim Patrick Clow wrote:

>I know that the Christmas Carol:  Joy to the World comes from an Handel
>Opera with "Antioch" in the title.  Could someone please give me more
>specifics as to the opera and where is the aria?

The carol does not come from an Handel opera...nor from Handel.  The tune
goes by the name "Antioch" and "has been ascribed to a number of composers
and is often wrongly described as 'arranged from Handel' and attributed to
Lowell Mason (1792-1872)." (All quoted information comes from pages 273-274
of "The New Oxford Book of Carols" (Oxford:  Oxford University Press,
1994).) Tracing the rather convoluted early history of the work, the tune
first appeared in the early 1830's in English tune-books.  A fellow named
William Holford revised the tune and published it in the mid-1830's.
Holford "attributes the tune unequivocally to Handel, presumably because
of the resemblance of the opening phrase to the choruses 'Glory to God' and
'Lift up your heads' in Messiah." (At this point Holford's tune was called
"Comfort.") Here in the States, a composer named Lowell Mason "retained the
attribution to Handel, changed the tune-name to 'Antioch,' and united it
with [Isaac] Watt's hymn [i.e., text] for the first time."

By the way, I highly recommend "The New Oxford Book of Carols" for those
with a keen interest in Christmas/Advent/New Year's carols.  It comes in
two versions:  the "fat" book containing all sorts of information, and a
shorter edition for singers which pretty much gives just the music.

Mark K. Ehlert