Ed Zubrow writes:

>Elijah was composed in 1845 at a request from the Birmingham Festival for
>a new oratorio for the following summer.  Mendelssohn conducted the premier
>in Birmingham on August 26, 1846.

According to Mendelssohn`s biography by Gerorge R. Marek "Gentle
Genius", the text of the Oratorio was translated into English by William
Bartholomew(who had previously submitted an opera libretto to Mendelssohn),
under the supervision of one of the best friend of Felix, Karl Klingemann.

Franco Destefanis