Semele
‘All our boasted fire is lost in smoke’
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About the opera
Semele is engaged, but secretly in love with someone else. Her lover is none other than Jove, King of the Gods. When he carries her off his wife Juno devises a scheme that will ensure a swift and brutal end – both to her husband’s infidelity and to Semele herself.
With a plot full of lusty Gods and beautiful mortals, where intrigue and desire take centre-stage, Handel’s Semele combines the drama of Italian opera with the choral splendour and richness of English oratorio. Ovid’s colourful Metamorphoses provides the starting point for a work that scandalised 18th-century audiences, a story of transformations, seductions and illusions that drew new sensuality and ecstasy from the composer.
Award-winning director Adele Thomas makes her Glyndebourne debut with the festival’s first-ever staging of Semele. Period specialist Václav Luks conducts an exciting young cast.
A new production for Festival 2023. Sung in English with supertitles.
Creative team
Conductor
Václav Luks
Director
Adele Thomas
Set Designer
Annemarie Woods
Costume Designer
Hannah Clark
Choreographer
Emma Woods
Assistant to the Choreographer
Robin Gladwin
Lighting Design
Peter Mumford with Rick Fisher
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Leader
Kati Debretzeni
Harpsichord continuo & organ
Jack Redman
Harp continuo
Joy Smith
Cello continuo
Jonathan Manson
Bass continuo
Cecelia Bruggemeyer
Theorbo continuo
William Carter
The Glyndebourne Chorus
Chorus Director
Aidan Oliver
Assistant Conductor
Jakub Kydlíček
Music Preparation
Toby Hession
Assistant Director
Rachael Hewer
Oliver Platt
Cast includes
Cadmus/Somnus
Clive Bayley
Athamas
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen
Semele
Joélle Harvey
Ino
Stephanie Wake-Edwards
Iris
Samuel Mariño
Juno
Jennifer Johnston
Jove
Stuart Jackson
Hugo Hymas (1, 6, 9, 11 & 16 August)
Dancers
Robin Gladwin
Harriet Waghorn
Jonathan Mewett
Jack Richardson
Child
Ailsa Bond Vannuffel
Jacob James
Samuel Mariño appears in the filmed version of Semele courtesy of Decca Classics
Photos
The Holley Family Trust and a Syndicate and Circle of individuals
To find out more about production support for Festival 2023 click here
or contact our Director of Development, Helen McCarthy for an informal chat:
call 01273 815 032 or email helen.mccarthy@glyndebourne.com
Illustration © Katie Ponder