Handel's forgotten Semele

Written two years after Handel's iconic masterpiece, Messiah, historically Semele has been caught between a rock and a hard place. Just when London audiences' taste was turning to oratorio, Handel wanted nothing more than to continue writing operas. Essentially, while calling his new drama an oratorio, Semele is clearly an opera or at best, a secular oratorio. Its characters are drawn from the mythology of ancient Greece like so many of the composer's earlier operas but the music reveals a complexity that reflects the glories of one of the worlds most popular classical works, Messiah. Like Messiah, it is originally in English.

" ... the music of Semele is so full of variety, the recitative so expressive, the orchestration so inventive, the characterization so apt, the general level of invention so high, the action so full of credible situation and incident — in a word, the piece as a whole is so suited to the operatic stage — that one can only suppose its neglect to have been due to an act of abnegation on the part of opera companies."– Harewood

Synopsis

Another story of hubris. Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, is betrothed to Athamas but she becomes the lover of the all-powerful, irresistable Jupiter who sets her up in a luxurious palace. The goddess Juno, Jupiter's wife, seeks to rid herself of this flirtation and get revenge so, through deception, she convinces Semele that she, too, is worthy of immortality. Too prove it, Semele is emboldened to ask Jupiter to grant her any wish--to see him in his true olympian form. Of course this is deadly to any mortal and so deceived, Semele perishes. Be careful what you wish for. . .

Semele Cast (order listed in the score)