Semele (HWV 58) is a "musical drama", originally presented "after the manner of an oratorio", in three parts by George Frideric Handel. Based on an existing opera libretto by William Congreve, the work is an opera in all but name but was first presented in concert form at Covent Garden theatre on 10 February 1744. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and concerns Semele, mother of Bacchus. Handel also referred to the work as "The Story of Semele". The work contains the famous aria "Where'er you walk".
The work fuses elements of opera, oratorio and classical drama, and is distinguished from Handel's operas by the large number of polyphonic choruses.The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia, Annette Landgraf, David Vickers, Cambridge University Press, 26 November 2009, p. 579, entry by John K. Andrews Semele was presented during Lent, one of Handel's regular oratorio seasons, but was not the solemn work that London audiences were expecting during the Lenten season. Instead, it has a secular text revolving around an adulterous relationship: Jupiter, king of the gods, assumes human form and begins an affair with Semele, a young, vain, and ambitious mortal woman; Juno, Jupiter's wife, misleads Semele into a plot to attain immortality from Jupiter; when Semele sets the plot in motion by trying to gaze upon Jupiter in his godlike form, his lightning burns her to ash.
Semele was performed four times during its original run, and twice again later the same year, but those were the only performances in Handel's lifetime. Today, Semele is frequently fully staged and receives regular performances at many of the world's opera houses, as well as performances in concert form.
Background
Handel's last Italian opera, Deidamia, was performed in 1741. After this time, he concentrated on oratorios and musical dramas with English texts. 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. As a result, in the early 1740s, oratorios at the Covent Garden Theatre were Handel's chief activity. While most of these works had sacred or religious texts, two stand out for being secular: Hercules and Semele.
The libretto was written by William Congreve around 1705–6 and originally set to music in John Eccles's opera Semele. The text was adapted for Handel by an unknown collaborator, and he wrote the music in just over a month, from 3 June to 4 July 1743. 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, 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-centred Lenten season of public concerts the following February (1744). So he fashioned Semele for presentation in the manner of an oratorio – a wolf in sheep's clothing to those not already enlightened to Ovid's Metamorphoses. His ploy to bring a powerful story to the theatre met, perhaps predictably, with mixed reactions. Mary Delany called it a "delightful piece of music", but commented, "Semele has a strong party against it, viz. the fine ladies, petit maitres, and ignoramuses. All the opera people are enraged at Handel." This probably related to the supporters of the rival Middlesex Opera Company, for which Handel would not write. Harsh criticism is also known from Messiah librettist Charles Jennens, who stated that it was "a baudy Opera".
The suggestion Semele was "profane" and so perhaps not suitable for respectable audiences caused the work to fall from the repertoire; it was revived only once by Handel.
However, Semele is still regarded as a work of high quality. 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.
Performance history
Semele was first performed on 10 February 1744 at the Covent Garden Theatre, London, as part of a concert series held yearly during Lent. The audience naturally expected Bible-based subject matter; but the amorous topic of Semele, which is a creation of the late Restoration Period, transparently drew on Greek myths, and thus displeased those who were attending for a different kind of uplift. Being in English, Semele likewise irritated the supporters of true Italian opera, particularly as Handel would also not write for the rival Middlesex Opera Company. Winton Dean writes in his book Handel's Dramatic Oratorios:
The public [in 1744] found [Semele's] tone too close to that of the discredited Italian opera and set it down as an oratorio manqué; where they expected wholesome Lenten bread, they received a glittering stone dug from the ruins of Greek mythology.
As a result, only four performances took place. 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. Henry Reinhold sang the bass roles. Handel seems to have interchanged some of the music between singers.
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.
20th century
Semele fell into prolonged neglect until its first stage performances, in Cambridge, England, in 1925 and in London in 1954. These fuelled an enthusiasm for the work that has not since lapsed.
Semele was staged on four occasions (1959, 1961, 1964 and 1975) by the Handel Opera Society under Charles Farncombe, and it entered the repertory of the Sadler's Wells Opera (now English National Opera) in 1970. The opera returned in 1982—after a 238-year hiatus—to Covent Garden (the Royal Opera House), with Valerie Masterson in the title role and conducted, as at Sadler's Wells, by Charles Mackerras.
The American stage première took place at the Ravinia Festival near Chicago in 1959. 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. (A recording with a similar cast was made in 1990 and issued on the Deutsche Grammophon label.)
In 1999, Semele returned to the English National Opera in London in a highly regarded production by Robert Carsen with Harry Bicket conducting, featuring Rosemary Joshua as Semele, John Mark Ainsley as Jupiter, Susan Bickley as Juno, Sarah Connolly as Ino, and Janis Kelly as Iris. The production was revived in 2004 with Carolyn Sampson (Semele), Ian Bostridge (Jupiter) and Patricia Bardon (Juno).
21st century Pinchgut Opera staged a production in 2002 in the City Recital Hall, Sydney, conducted by Antony Walker and directed by Justin Way. There is a recording of this production.
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."A Chinese Spin on Baroque Opera" by George Loomis, The New York Times, 16 September 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2010) This moved on 24 October 2010 to Beijing's Poly Theater as part of the Beijing Music Festival—the first major production of a baroque opera in the People's Republic of China.Xinhua News Agency, "Myth and Fact share the same stage" (Retrieved 26 October 2010) In May 2012 this production moved to the Canadian Opera Company, and while Jane Archibald received high praise for her performance in the title role, the production received generally poor reviews overall for having excised Handel's finale and haphazardly introducing Buddhist themes incongruent to the source material.
Among numerous performances worldwide, the piece received a production as a fully staged opera at Opera Philadelphia in 2019 and at the Royal Opera by Oliver Mears in 2025.
Roles
+ RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 10 February 1744Conductor: G. F. Handel JupitertenorJohn Beard Cadmus, King of ThebesbassHenry Reinhold Semele, daughter to Cadmus, in love with JupitersopranoÉlisabeth Duparc ("La Francesina") Athamas, a prince of Bœotia, in love with, and designed to marry SemelealtoDaniel Sullivan (countertenor) Ino, sister to Semele, in love with Athamasmezzo-sopranoEsther Young SomnusbassHenry Reinhold ApollotenorJohn Beard Junomezzo-sopranoEsther Young IrissopranoChristina Maria AvoglioHigh priestbassHenry ReinholdChorus of priests, augurs, loves, zephyrs, nymphs, swains and attendants
Synopsis
Precis:
Jupiter, king of the gods, takes the mortal Princess Semele to a secret hiding place on a mountain to be his mistress. When Jupiter's wife, Juno, hears of her husband's adultery she is enraged, and plots to ensure Semele's downfall. In disguise, Juno appeals to the girl's vanity and persuades her to insist on seeing her lover in his divine form. Jupiter reluctantly agrees but his thunderbolts burn and consume Semele. From her ashes, though, arise her unborn child by Jupiter—Bacchus, god of wine and ecstasy.
Act 1
Scene: Greece, in legendary antiquity
The scene is the temple of Juno. Near the altar is a golden image of the goddess