Semele GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685 – 1759)
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Table of Contents Welcome........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Characters and Synopsis........................................................................................................................... 4 Composer and Librettist Biographies.................................................................................................. 6 Opera at a Glance......................................................................................................................................... 8 Listening Guide............................................................................................................................................. 9 What to Look for........................................................................................................................................... 13 Credits............................................................................................................................................................... 16
Cover: The Canadian Opera Company presents Semele. Ying Huang as Semele in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production, 2009. Photo: Zhang Huan Studio Below: A scene from the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Karl Forster
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Semele Study Guide
Welcome Dear Educators and Students, Opera can move us, it can excite us. It’s a tool for learning about ourselves and those around us. The study of opera opens doors to new cultures, languages, artistic and literary forms, important events in history, music and so much more. To help you discover the beauty, significance and thrill of opera, the COC has designed accessible Study Guides. Each Study Guide introduces you to the key figures involved in the creation of an opera, and deepens your understanding of its characters and story. Is listening to an opera intimidating for you or your students? Not to worry. We’ve highlighted composers’ musical techniques in easy-to-follow Listening Guides. Not sure if you’re going to understand the staging? We’ve got that covered for you too. The What to Look For articles explain the creative team’s concept, key points of inspiration for their adaptation of the piece and visual elements to look for on stage. Use these Study Guides as the basis for stimulating and thought-provoking discussions before, during or after your visit to the opera.
“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.” Maria Callas, renowned GreekAmerican soprano
I welcome you into the Canadian Opera Company community and encourage you to actively engage in the opera experience long before and after the curtain falls. Katherine Semcesen Associate Director, Education and Outreach
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Semele: Characters and Synopsis MAIN CHARACTERS Name Semele Juno Ino Jupiter Cadmus Somnus Athamas Iris Apollo
Description Daughter of Cadmus Goddess, wife of Jupiter Goddess of sea God of heaven King of Thebes God of sleep Prince of Orchomenus Messenger of the gods God of light and sun
Voice Type Soprano Mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano Tenor Bass Bass Counter-tenor Soprano Tenor
Pronunciation SEH-muh-lay JOO-noh EE-noh JOO-pih-ter KAD-muhs SOM-nuhs AH-tha-mass EYE-ris up-POH-loh
Jeremy Ovenden as Jupiter and Ying Huang as Semele in a scene from the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Karl Forster
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SYNOPSIS Act I In the temple of Juno, Cadmus, King of Thebes, prepares for the marriage of his daughter Semele to Prince Athamas. Semele has been inventing obstacles to the marriage, troubled by her secret love for Jupiter. She calls to him to help her. Jupiter honours Semele’s cries for help and sends thunderbolts to indicate his displeasure with her impending marriage. Terrified, everyone leaves the temple. Semele’s sister Ino tries to comfort Athamas, revealing that she herself loves him. In the midst of this confusion, Cadmus enters to describe the scene that has just occurred: Semele has been whisked away by a giant zzeagle, which the Priests identify as Jupiter. As the act ends, Semele is seen enjoying her new role as Jupiter’s mistress. Act II Juno is furious when she discovers that her husband Jupiter has built a new well-guarded palace for Semele. She swears vengeance on Semele, and decides to enlist the help of Somnus, the god of sleep, to help her defeat her rival. As Semele awakes in the castle, Jupiter arrives and reassures her of his love. He detects from her words that she has dangerous ambitions of immortality. Not wanting to address the fact that she will never gain immortality, he diverts her attention by transforming the palace into an Arcadian grove. Ino is summoned from earth to keep her sister company.
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Act III Juno and Iris rouse Somnus, god of sleep, from slumber. Juno orders him to give Jupiter a dream that will enflame him with such a passion for Semele that he will do whatever she asks. Next, Juno presents herself to Semele disguised as Ino and gives her a magic mirror, which, when she looks into it, makes Semele fall in love with her own reflection. Juno tells her that the only way she can gain immortality is to make love to Jupiter in all of his godly splendour instead of his mortal disguise. Semele agrees. Jupiter returns enflamed with passion for Semele but she spurns his advances until he agrees to give her whatever she wants. He rashly agrees to Semele’s conditions but is aghast at her request that he appear in his god-like form. He desperately warns her of the danger she will face, knowing it will be the cause of her death. Juno exults in her victory as Semele is burned by the flames of the god’s power.* Ino returns to Thebes and relates the story of Semele’s death and describes a dream in which Jupiter reveals his wish for Ino to marry Athamas. Apollo predicts that a phoenix shall rise from Semele’s ashes, a god more mighty even than Love – Bacchus, god of wine. Everyone celebrates this fortunate outcome. *PLEASE NOTE The production by Zhang Huan that the COC is presenting ends with Semele’s death, and does not include the celebratory final chorus. For more, see Musical Excerpt #5 in the Listening Guide (page 12).
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Semele: Composer and Librettist Biographies COMPOSER BIOGRAPHY George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) George Frideric Handel, born in Halle, Prussia, on February 23, 1685, was discouraged by his parents from studying music as a boy. Luckily, his father’s employer the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels heard young Handel playing the organ and persuaded his parents to let him have a musical education. In 1702 Handel became the organist at the Calvinist Cathedral of Halle. It is believed that he visited Berlin at that time, where he met composers like Giovanni Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti and subsequently developed an interest in composing opera. In 1703 Handel went to the opera house in Hamburg as second violinist. The resident composer, Reinhard Keiser, had to leave town quickly owing to large debts. He left an opera unproduced and asked Handel to set the same libretto to new music. This led to Handel’s first production in 1704 of Almira, which was highly successful. The Tuscan prince and avid patron of music, Ferdinando de’ Medici, encouraged Handel to travel to Florence to familiarize himself with the Italian style. There he composed operas and church music (including the oratorio La resurrezione) and had his music performed in Florence, Naples, Rome and Venice, all the while perfecting his ability to set Italian words to music. His opera Agrippina opened the 1709 carnival in Venice and was a huge success. In 1710 he took the position of Kapellmeister to the elector of Hanover (and future King of England, George II of England). Handel travelled to England in 1710, a time when London audiences were clamouring for Italian opera. Until then, the productions that had been mounted were adaptations of Italian operas, many of these versions arranged by Nicola Haym. Handel was to present the first real Italian opera written for London and performed by Italians (the castrati – male singers whose high vocal register was preserved by castration before the onset of puberty – were especially favoured by audiences): Rinaldo premiered in 1711 and was a sensation.
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Sarah Tynan as Iris in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Zhang Huan Studio
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In 1713 Handel was released from his employment in Hanover, possibly because he had expressed a desire to settle in London. He composed more operas to mixed success but was also writing church music, including Te Deum (1713) and Jubilate (1714), which had its first performance for the new king, the former elector of Hanover. For his music for the church and the court, Handel had been awarded a pension. 1717 saw the premiere of his Water Music. That same year he took a position with the Earl of Carnarvon (soon to be Duke of Chandos) in London where he wrote 11 anthems and two dramatic works, Acis and Galatea and Esther. In 1719 Handel was appointed the musical director of the newly founded Royal Academy of Music, for which he wrote a dazzling series of operas: Rodelinda, Giulio Cesare, Ottone, and Admeto, a position which ended when the academy closed in 1728 due to lack of funds. In 1723 Handel took British naturalization. Beginning in 1729 he launched a series of opera seasons at the King’s Theatre. Works included Acis, Orlando, Ariodante and Alcina. In 1741 the Messiah was premiered in Dublin and Handel stopped composing operas. From then on, his work was taken up with oratorios, (including Semele, Samson, Belshazzar and Judas Maccabaeus), orchestral works and revivals of his many operas. When Handel died in London on April 14, 1759, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was, and is still acclaimed as, a supreme artist of the Baroque era. His powerful, beautiful and vividly dramatic music is apparent in all his works, including the English oratorio, a genre he created.
LIBRETTIST BIOGRAPHY William Congreve (1670 – 1729) English dramatist, poet and librettist William Congreve was born in Bardsley, Yorkshire on January 24, 1670. He spent much of his childhood in Ireland and was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, where he befriended the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift. Though Congreve initially intended to study law, he was drawn towards the literary life and enjoyed a fairly distinguished career as a playwright for the stage with works like The Old Bachelor (1693) and The Double Dealer (1693). His comedy, Love for Love (1695), premiered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London and was one of the biggest theatrical successes of the period. Congreve excelled at creating pithy dialogue and memorable turns of phrase. Love for Love, for example, yielded the familiar, “You must not kiss and tell,” while his follow-up work, The Mourning Bride (1697), featured frequently quoted lines like “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast” and “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned/Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” Still, his literary career was short-lived, partly because his next work The Way of the World (1700) was very poorly received. Ironically, the play is considered Congreve’s greatest achievement by contemporary scholars, not to mention one of the best English-language comedies of all time. Though he retired from the theatre early and spent the rest of his life in a political career, Congreve did occasionally return to artistic projects. In 1700, a group of noblemen organized a contest to encourage the development of English opera. Congreve was commissioned to write the libretto while the top composers of the day wrote music to it for top honours. Congreve expected that his friend, the composer John Eccles, would win but a comparative outsider, John Weldon, earned first prize. From 1705 to 1706, Congreve worked on the libretto for Semele with Eccles writing the music. Semele was completed in 1707 but, for reasons that remain unclear, was never actually performed. The libretto was published in 1710 though more than three decades would elapse before Handel transformed it into a secular oratorio and wrote music for the Semele that we know today. Congreve died in London on January 19, 1729.
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Semele: At a Glance Source Material: The libretto by William Congreve (1670 – 1729) is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a long Latin poem that dramatizes various events in Greek mythology, all of which are thematically connected by transformations of one sort or another. Composed: 1743 Premiere: February 10, 1744 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Audience Reception: The opera was not an instant success. Staged as a concert during the Lenten season – a time when self-restraint and self-denial were the preferred subject matter – Semele’s themes of unbridled passion and eroticism did not connect very well with audiences.
WHAT IS IT REALLY ABOUT? Some scholars think Handel intended Semele as an allegory about getting privilege and power through sexual favours.
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Language: English
Version Performed by COC: Co-production of Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and KT Wong Foundation. Original sets and costumes built by the workshops of Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.
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Length Of PERFORMANCE: Two hours and 57 minutes with one intermission
Semele Study Guide
Semele: Listening Guide Semele is an opera about the complexity of love, both in its physical and emotional dimensions, as well as the range of joyous highs and painful lows that attends its experience. In addition to strong character development, Semele features a compelling dramatic plot supported by a vibrant and moving score by Handel. In other words, it has all the ingredients for a veritable classic of the operatic stage. Yet the piece struggled for years to find a place in the standard repertoire. Much of this has to do with the fact that Semele was composed at a time when Handel’s musical output was devoted to oratorios, which are unstaged musical settings of sacred subjects for public entertainment and moral instruction. Oratorios in the 18th century were most often presented in church, which in practice meant that their content had to address a sacred theme. Semele was an anomaly because while it was written in the oratorio style – insofar as its musical forms and strong moral message were concerned – its subjects were drawn from ancient
mythology instead of the more comfortable provenance of the Bible. Even Handel did not call it an oratorio outright, and settled for a more ambiguous explanation by saying that it should be performed in “a manner of an oratorio.” After its premiere at Convent Garden on February 10, 1744, Semele received only 12 performances over two seasons. It was not performed again until it appeared in a staged version in Cambridge in 1925. The tracks listed below correspond to the complimentary Semele Listening Guides CD, available with school group bookings only. Based on the recording Semele, Deutsche Grammophon, 435 782-2. English Chamber Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, John Nelson, conductor. Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, John Aler, Sylvia McNair, Michael Chance.
Ying Huang as Semele and Ning Liang as Juno/Ino in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Karl Forster
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MUSICAL EXCERPT Overture Connection to the Story In the temple of Juno, Cadmus, King of Thebes, prepares for the marriage of his daughter, Semele, to Prince Athamas. Musical Significance The overture is an orchestral introduction to the themes and emotions that will later be explored in the opera. This overture is in the style of the French overture and is set in two parts: a majestic opening and an allegro with fugue-like imitations (the same melody/theme appearing in different instrumental lines). The overture concludes with a French peasant dance form in 4/4 time called a gavotte, which sets the scene for the celebrations of the pending nuptials between Semele and Athamas.
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MUSICAL EXCERPT Act I, accompagnato: “Ah, wretched prince, doom’d to disastrous love!” Connection to the Story Cadmus recounts Semele’s abduction by Jupiter, who appeared in the form of an eagle. Musical Significance A noteworthy feature in 18th-century opera was the emergence of two types of recitatives (sung-spoken passages that advance the plot). The recitatives differed in their structure and the use of accompanying instruments. The recitativo secco (dry recitative) was sung in a natural declamatory style and had very light instrumental accompaniment, most often a low bass and the pianoforte (Italian for piano). A recitativo accompagnato is a recitative that is accompanied by the orchestra to enhance the drama in the text. It is more tuneful and structured than a standard recitative, but less structured than an air (a tuneful piece for solo voice and instruments). This excerpt begins with a traditional recitativo secco by Cadmus, and after a brief interjection by Athamas, Cadmus returns with a recitativo accompagnato (“Wing’d with our fears and pious haste”). Listen for the dramatic effect of the descending strings when Cadmus describes Jupiter swooping down from the heavens to get Semele, and hear them ascend as Jupiter takes Semele to his celestial home. Handel was fond of the accompagnato and used it a total of 12 times in Semele. FURTHER REFLECTION Here’s another perspective on Semele’s character and her apparent desperation to be with Jupiter. Semele is often described as a very sexually charged and selfish woman. But by the time we encounter her at the start of the opera, according to the myth, Semele is already pregnant with Jupiter’s child. Does this context alter our interpretation of Semele’s actions or not? Is she a promiscuous, naïve young woman, or is she a young pregnant girl fleeing the wrath of her father?
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MUSICAL EXCERPT Act I, air and chorus: “Endless pleasure, endless love” Connection to the Story After being abducted by Jupiter, Semele rejoices that she has been delivered from an unwanted marriage and into the hands of her lover. Musical Significance The repetition in this air evokes Semele’s love and its intoxicating power over the supreme deity. The air climaxes at the end with a rousing chorus. The piece is in the form of a gavotte, which you’ll remember is a French peasant dance at a moderate pace. Perhaps by associating a folkdance with Semele, Handel intended to emphasize Semele’s mortality amongst the heavenly gods. FURTHER REFLECTION Semele, in general, has been described as a very sensual opera. How does this piece support this statement?
(l – r) Nathan Berg as Cadmus, David Hansen as Athamas and Ying Huang as Semele in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Zhang Huan Studio
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MUSICAL EXCERPT Act II, air: “Where’er you walk” Connection to the Story In the opera’s most famous aria, Jupiter sings of the pastoral scene he has conjured to distract Semele from her bid for immortality. Musical Significance This piece is tender and sentimental, hardly a tune you’d expect from Jupiter, the god of thunder and lighting. The bewitching and simplistic melodic writing, for which Handel is most famous, captures the peaceful and dream-like pastoral image offered up by Jupiter. This air is in the form of a da capo aria (“from the head solo”), a musical form that Handel would have been introduced to while studying Italian opera. The da capo aria is a solo that is devised in three parts (ternary form): the main melody is introduced in the first section (A), followed by contrasting music in the second section (B), and concludes with a return to the music of the initial passage (A). The third section is often not written out by the composer but a da capo at the end of the second passage instructs the singer and instrumentalists to return to the beginning of the piece. The singer was expected to improvise and add a variety of ornamentation to the music to keep it from being too repetitive; this also gave singers an opportunity to show off their vocal acrobatics. The text of this air was not written by the librettist William Congreve, but was lifted directly from the “Second Pastoral” by English poet Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744). FURTHER REFLECTION Debate! Do you think Jupiter’s tender sentiments are true? Does he really love and adore Semele? Or is his attraction purely lustful and physical? Could it be both?
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MUSICAL EXCERPT Act III, chorus: “Happy, happy shall we be” Connection to the Story Even though Semele has died, the chorus rejoices that from her “ashes a phoenix shall rise.” That is, the god Bacchus, son of Semele and Jupiter. Musical Significance The chorus forms an integral part of the drama and its music throughout is quintessentially Handelian in flavour. It is full of fugue-like figures, with each voice joining the melody at separate intervals. It’s not surprising that several passages in this chorus are reminiscent of Handel’s famous “Hallelujah” chorus from Messiah, which was composed two years before Semele. The triumphant chorus rejoices that Semele and Jupiter’s love will live on, giving a bright spin to Semele’s tragic end. FURTHER REFLECTION Handel puts a very happy twist to this ending and leaves the audience on a high note, but director Zhang Huan chose to end the opera with Semele’s death. Which ending is most appealing to you and why?
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Semele: What to Look for Director Zhang Huan Background Born in Anyang, China in 1965, Zhang Huan is one of China’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. With this production of Semele he makes his debut as a stage director of opera. Initially trained as a painter, Zhang’s artistic practice since the 1990s has evolved into performance art, sculpture, as well as some unconventional media including ash painting, sculpting in ox-hide, door carvings, and feather woodcuts. Much of his work is intensely personal, complicating the relationship between reality and art. Many people have said that Zhang strives to create a sense of ambiguity: he makes artwork that prompts the spectator to reflect on what they’ve witnessed. As part of this self-discovery, ask yourself “how do I feel about what I’m seeing on stage, and why?”
Zhang’s work explores the complex relationship between experience and environment; identity and culture; and, the individual and their ancestry. How are these dualities part of Semele’s story?
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For his ash paintings, Zhang collects burnt incense from temples. Ash contains a connection to the spirituality of religion (i.e. it is the material residue of prayers), but through its fragile texture it also reminds us of the impermanence of all material things. Once recycled as a medium of artistic practice (e.g. a picture), the ash becomes both a metaphorical and literal manifestation of rebirth after death.
A scene from the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Karl Forster
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Secrets of the Set Design This production features a real 450-year-old Ming Dynasty temple that Zhang Huan came across in Quzhou, China, in the southwestern part of the country. When Zhang had the entire wooden structure taken apart and shipped to his studio in Shanghai for reassembly, he discovered within its walls the personal diary of a Mr. Fang, the temple’s deceased tenant who had lived there with his family 20 years earlier. In the diary, Mr. Fang writes about his wife, Ruan Jinmei: she had been unfaithful and he resolved to kill her lover. After murdering the man who was his wife’s lover, Mr. Fang was arrested and eventually executed for his crime. For Zhang Huan, the fact that this old temple stored (quite literally) a history of jealousy, lust and violent death made the structure an ideal backdrop for an opera that confronts similar impulses of unstoppable desire and the destructive consequences of craving what one cannot possess. Props or sets in theatre are almost always fake. (Arguably that’s part of their definition.) Does adding a genuine historical artifact to a production alter your perception of the work and the significance of its themes? Would your reaction to the performance be different if Zhang Huan had made an exact replica of the ancient temple? Why or why not?
Originating in India in the 5th century BC, Buddhism is a religion and philosophy that seeks enlightenment through the eradication of earthly material desire.
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East Meets West An important part of Zhang’s storytelling technique in Semele is to meld elements from Eastern and Western cultures to reveal, in his words, that “the roots of pain introduced a hundred years ago in a Western opera reappear in the East, in the fate of a single peasant family in the countryside.” By using this symbolic crosspollination, Zhang suggests that fundamental aspects of humanity recur throughout history – regardless of economic class, geography, or cultural background. Look for these symbols of Eastern culture in Semele: w Donkey: initially a comic childlike figure, the animal represents a peasant wedding. The donkey then reappears in Jupiter’s domain, at which point he stands for hedonism, sex and passion. w Sumos: Sumo wrestlers are a recognizable symbol of Asian culture. In this production they are suggestive of a violent, erotic sensuality that is supra-human (i.e. an experience beyond the bounds of human love). w White dragon: the mythical creature that transports humans to celestial realms after death. In Semele the dragon represents Jupiter’s divinity, which in the Western tradition is usually signified by a lightning bolt.
Buddhism Zhang Huan makes use of the Buddhist concepts of “yin” and “guo” (cause and effect) to tell Semele’s story. The notion of karma is an important one to bear in mind as you witness the consequences of Semele’s actions. Buddhism holds that the universe is defined by a cycle of life and death; this makes the material universe impermanent in its constant flux. Zhang Huan emphasizes the impermanence of all things with the haunting conclusion of Semele: we see an ash painting of Mr. Fang’s widow disintegrating in the falling rain, giving us a humbling, contemplative ending instead of the joyous celebration of Handel’s final chorus (for more, see page 12).
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Costumes The costumes by fashion designer Han Feng combine elements of Baroque European tailoring with the patterned silks, colours and flowing fabrics of traditional Chinese theatre. The costumes of the chorus are almost entirely orange, which is a colour associated with Tibet and Buddha’s wisdom (see the photograph at the bottom of the page). Costume for Jupiter (below) and for Semele (right). Photos: COC, 2012
A scene from the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie production of Semele, 2009. Photo: Karl Forster
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The COC offers a wide variety of school programs for Kindergarten to Grade 12. To find out more, visit our website at coc.ca/Explore or contact: Education & Outreach Canadian Opera Company Tel: 416-306-2392 Fax: 416-363-5584 education@coc.ca Semele Study Guide editors: Katherine Semcesen, Associate Director, Education and Outreach; Nikita Gourski, Development Communications Assistant; Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial; Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative; Carly Anderson, Children & Youth Programs Manager The COC Gratefully Acknowledges:
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Above: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Photo: Sam Javanrouh
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