Semele (Handel)

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. 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.

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,^{[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-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: