Semele (Handel)
Many of these, including Semele, were premiered at the Covent Garden Theatre, beginning with Alexander's Feast in 1736 and finishing with The Triumph of Time and Truth in 1757.
Semele contains self-borrowings from Giulio Cesare and Fra pensieri qual pensiero (HWV 115), as well as borrowings from Alessandro Scarlatti (notably Il Pompeo), Porta,[clarification needed] Reinhard Keiser, and Telemann.
Noteworthy in the score are the number and quality of accompanied recitatives (a characteristic it shares with Il Pompeo), and the sheer variety of style and tempo markings (23, with nine unique in English works).
The musical drama takes a similar shape to an opera, but Handel eyed a place for it on the Covent Garden Theatre's oratorio-centered Lenten season of public concerts the following February (1744).
As Lord Harewood put it: 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, unless of course it is caused by sheer ignorance.
[3]Semele was first performed on 10 February 1744 at the Covent Garden Theatre, London, as part of a concert series held yearly during Lent.
But the amorous topic of Semele, which is a creation of the late Restoration Period, transparently drew on Greek myths, and so it displeased those attending for a different kind of uplift.
The cast at the première included Elisabeth Duparc ('La Francesina') in the title role, Esther Young as Juno (and Ino), and John Beard as Jupiter.
Later, on 1 and 8 December 1744, Handel presented a revised version, this time at the King's Theatre, after cutting four sections of dialogue containing sexual innuendo and making additions that included interspersed arias in Italian (for the opera crowd) from Arminio and Giustino.
Semele was performed in Washington, DC, in 1980, and at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 1985, on the latter occasion with Kathleen Battle in the title role and John Nelson conducting.
Rosemary Joshua played Semele, John Mark-Ainsley was Jupiter, Susan Bickley as Juno, and Sarah Connolly the sister Ino.
Pinchgut Opera staged a production in 2002 in the City Recital Hall, Sydney, conducted by Antony Walker and directed by Justin Way.
In 2004 a staged production directed by David McVicar and conducted by Marc Minkowski opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
[citation needed] In 2007, Zürich Opera in Switzerland mounted Robert Carsen's 1999 production of Semele as a vehicle for Cecilia Bartoli, with Birgit Remmert and Charles Workman [de] as Juno and Jupiter and William Christie conducting.
[citation needed] In September of the same year a new staging by the Chinese artist Zhang Huan, conducted by Rousset, with Les Talens Lyriques, opened at La Monnaie in Brussels.
[7] In May 2012 this production moved to the Canadian Opera Company, receiving generally poor[8][9] reviews for having excised Handel's finale and haphazardly introducing Buddhist themes incongruently to the source material.
[10] Precis: Jupiter, king of the gods, takes the mortal Princess Semele to a secret hiding place on a mountain to be his mistress.
Near the altar is a golden image of the goddess In the temple of Juno, Cadmus, King of Thebes, is preparing for the marriage of his daughter Semele to Athamas, Prince of Boeotia.
However, the bride has been inventing one excuse after the other to put off the wedding and her father and would-be bridegroom urge her to hesitate no longer (duet: "Daughter, hear!
Athamas, observing her, takes her physical signs of emotional upheaval as evidence she is in love with him (aria: "Hymen, haste, thy torch prepare").
Ino, Semele's sister, now appears, also in a state of distress as she is in love with Athamas (quartet: "Why dost thou thus untimely grieve?")
Jupiter has heard Semele's prayer and his thunderbolts interrupt the proceedings and alarm the observers (chorus: "Avert these omens, all ye pow'rs").
Cadmus interrupts their confusion and describes the extraordinary event he has just witnessed: as they fled the temple Semele was suddenly carried off by an eagle (accompanied recitative: "Wing'd with our fears").
Iris reports that Jove has installed Semele as his mistress in a palace atop a mountain (aria: "There, from mortal cares retiring").
Jupiter has arranged for Semele's sister Ino to be magically transported to the palace, to keep her company, and promises that the gardens and environs will be paradise (aria: "Where'er you walk").
He leaves, and Ino appears, describing the wondrous experience of being flown there by winged zephyrs (aria: "But hark, the heav'nly sphere turns round").
"Ino" advises Semele to insist that Jupiter appear to her in his real, godlike form, and that will make her immortal herself (accompanied recitative: "Conjure him by his oath").
Semele, granted her wish to see Jupiter in his true godlike form, is consumed by his thunderbolts, and as she dies she regrets her own foolishness and ambition (accompanied recitative: "Ah me!
