Composed: 1743
Premiered: 1744, London
Duration: 12 minutes

When Handel moved to England, one of his most important activities was composing Italian operas. He had spent about three years in Italy, absorbing the techniques and spirit of opera in the land where it originated, and achieving considerable success.  

For a time, there was a good market for Italian opera in London, and Handel prospered. By the late 1730s, the enthusiasm of English audiences for this kind of entertainment had declined, and Handel turned to the composition of sacred oratorios. But he could not bring himself to abandon opera altogether; in 1743 he set to music the story of Semele, one of Jupiter’s many mortal loves. It was described as “an opera after the manner of an oratorio.”  

The words were English, and the performances were not staged, but part of a series of oratorios. Although it contains some of Handel’s loveliest music, it was not received very well. Audiences expecting an uplifting experience were not pleased by this tale of sexual passion among licentious Greek gods.