Name: Handel’s Semele
Start: 2023-06-10T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2023-06-10T00:00:00.000Z
Location: The Orchard Tea Garden

Organization

Conductor

Chris Parsons

Soprano

Elen Lloyd Roberts

Semele

Tenor

Gareth Edmunds

Jupiter

Frances Gregory

Juno

Bass

John Holland-Avery

Cadmus

Contralto

Joe Porter Bolger

Athamas

Angus McPhee

Somnus

Naomi Sturges

Iris

James Beddoe

Apollo

Singer

Emily Jennings

Cupid

Mezzo-soprano

Alex Osborne

Eboracum Baroque

Handel’s Semele

Cambridge

United Kingdom

The Orchard Tea Garden

Semele Händel

Private

Public

Approved

Eboracum Baroque are delighted to return to the idyllic Orchard Tea Gardens for a concert performance of Handel’s Semele. This performance features the musicians of Eboracum Baroque including soloists, chorus and an orchestra performing of period instruments. Relax in a beautiful setting listening to some of Handel’s greatest music. Refreshments available to purchase from the tea rooms.

Originally performed in 1744, it was described as a ‘bawdy opera’ rather than an Oratorio.

The Plot

A love story with a twist; the god Jupiter is captivated by the beauty of the all-too-human Semele. Inspired by the dramatic and colourful mythological characters, Handel’s music is powerfully seductive. Jupiter entrances Semele by promising that ‘Where e’er you walk’ he will arrange for trees to provide welcome shade, and that at her every step, flowers will blossom into life. She exults, with unabashed sensual delight, in everything that Jupiter has to offer, singing triumphantly of ‘Endless pleasure, endless love’. In this parable of over-ambition and over-indulgence Semele flirts with danger by demanding immortality and suffers the consequences, leaving behind her one life-enhancing legacy – her son, Bacchus, god of wine.

English

Forestillingkreditter (Ensemble & produksjonsteam )

Cast