Eboracum Baroque are delighted to perform in the beautiful gardens of St Mary’s School, Cambridge for a concert performance of Handel’s Semele. This performance features the musicians of Eboracum Baroque including soloists, chorus and an orchestra performing of period instruments. Relax in a beautiful setting listening to some of Handel’s greatest music. Bring your own picnics and garden chairs/rugs. Ice cream available.

Originally performed in 1744, it was described as a ‘bawdy opera’ rather than an Oratorio.

The Plot

A love story with a twist; the god Jupiter is captivated by the beauty of the all-too-human Semele. Inspired by the dramatic and colourful mythological characters, Handel’s music is powerfully seductive. Jupiter entrances Semele by promising that ‘Where e’er you walk’ he will arrange for trees to provide welcome shade, and that at her every step, flowers will blossom into life. She exults, with unabashed sensual delight, in everything that Jupiter has to offer, singing triumphantly of ‘Endless pleasure, endless love’. In this parable of over-ambition and over-indulgence Semele flirts with danger by demanding immortality and suffers the consequences, leaving behind her one life-enhancing legacy – her son, Bacchus, god of wine.

Semele – Elen Lloyd Roberts

Jupiter – Gareth Edmunds

Juno – Frances Gregory

Cadmus – John Holland Avery

Athamas – Joe Porter Bolger

Somnus – Angus McPhee

Ino – Alex Osborne

Iris – Naomi Sturges

Cupid – Emily Jennings

Apollo – James Beddoe

Conductor – Chris Parsons