Glyndebourne: George Frideric Handel: Semele

Directed by Olivier Award nominee Adele Thomas & conducted by baroque music specialist Václav Luks leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Revenge is served blazing hot in Semele, Handel’s sexiest and most scandalous oratorio. The 2023 Festival presents Glyndebourne’s first ever production, directed by Olivier Award nominee Adele Thomas and conducted by baroque music specialist Václav Luks, who makes his Glyndebourne debut leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

The original audience of Handel’s Semele must have had quite a shock. Instead of a traditional biblical drama that they might have been expecting for lent, they were faced with something entirely different. Replacing the familiar biblical heroes were a host of lascivious Roman gods, and their mortal playthings. Far from being a sacred drama, Semele was a provocatively secular story of seduction, adultery and revenge. Semele is engaged, but secretly in love with someone else. Her lover is none other than Jove, King of the Gods. When he carries Semele off, it invokes the wrath of his wife Juno who devises a scheme to punish her husband and destroy her rival once and for all. Combining the sexual intrigue of classical myth with the solo virtuosity of Italian opera and the choral splendour of oratorio, Semele is the best of all worlds, a piece that rewrites the theatrical rules.

Genre Opera
Recording location Glyndebourne Festival
Production year 2023
Production Company Maestro Broadcasting
Duration 167'
Video format HD
TV Director Jonathan Haswell
Distribution TV EuroArts Music International
Distribution VOD / SVOD EuroArts Music International
English title of music work George Frideric Handel: Semele. an oratorio in three acts, libretto by William Congreve
Orchestra / Band Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Conductor Václav Luks
Stage Director Adele Thomas
Costumes Hannah Clark
Choreography by Emma Woods
Light Design Peter Mumford and Rick Fisher
Choir The Glyndebourne Chorus
Chorus Master Aidan Oliv
Sets Annemarie Woods
Soloists Clive Bayley (Cadmus/Somnus), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Athamas), Joélle Harvey (Semele), Stephanie Wake-Edwards (Ino), Samuel Mariño (Iris), Jennifer Johnston (Juno), Hugo Hymas (Jove), Ailsa Bond Vannuffel and Jacob James (children)