Opera or oratorio? Both, probably, and certainly one of Handel's most richly dramatic scores. The fateful story of the vain heroine of Greek tragedy includes Semele's show-stopping arias Endless pleasure, endless love and Myself I shall adore. This concert performance is conducted by a leading interpreter of early music, who, this evening, brings his own world-famous ensemble to the Royal Albert Hall , London for the first time.
Chorus and Orchestra of Les Arts
Florissants, conductor William Christie
Act
7.25 Semele: an English Opera?
Derek Alsop examines the problem of how to classify what Handel's first biographer defined as an English opera called an oratorio.
7.45 Act 2
8.30 Congreve's Final Years
William Congreve 's last and his most often revived play - The Way of the World - was written in 1700 and. initially, coolly received. Peter Holland explores the reasons for the silence of his last 30 years and why this was punctuated by a libretto on the theme of Semele.
8.50 Act 3