Four years before the premiere in early January 1745, Georg Friedrich Handel had given up his efforts on the opera and turned entirely to the oratorio. Nevertheless, like Semele, which was written a year earlier, he expressly referred to it as a “musical drama”, with which he probably wanted to underline the dramatic character of these two works. The first performance of Herculeswas a failure - short-term cancellations and hoarse singers had, as contemporary witnesses reported, led to unintentionally grotesque situations. In contrast to the ancient sources, in Thomas Broughton's libretto the jealousy of Hercules' wife is unfounded. Handel's interest in this work is not so much the title hero, but especially the tragic behavior of his wife Dejanira, which is inherent in pathological traits. With her, Handel created one of his most exciting and modern female figures, which can only be explained with the help of psychology.
Herculesmay elude the usual classification according to genre, but in the opinion of the Handel specialist Silke Leopold it is one of the most historically significant, dramatically moving and musically wonderful works from the pen of Georg Friedrich Handel.
