Ep. 133 Semele by Handel

Summary

Opera For Everyone Podcast Summary: Ep. 133 – Semele by Handel

Release Date: August 10, 2025
Host: Pat Wright
Guest Co-host: Kathleen Vanderwil
Airs: Sundays, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. on 89.1 KHOL, Jackson, Wyoming
Cover Artwork: Rosie Brooks (rosiebrooks.com)

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Introduction

In Episode 133 of Opera For Everyone, host Pat Wright is joined once again by Kathleen Vanderwil to delve into Semele, a baroque opera by George Friedrich Handel. Diverging from their usual focus on Italian operas, this episode explores Handel’s English Oratorio/Opera, offering listeners an accessible and engaging breakdown of its intricate plot, rich character dynamics, and musical brilliance.

Pat Wright opens the discussion by highlighting the unique nature of Semele:

"[00:35] Pat Wright: ...this is a baroque opera by George Friedrich Handel and it's not about Romeo and Juliet. So it's a real change for us."

Background and Context

Semele premiered in London in 1744 and stands as one of Handel's most renowned oratorios, alongside Messiah. Unlike the Italian operas Handel is typically associated with, Semele is often performed as an English opera or oratorio. This shift was partly due to changing audience tastes and economic considerations, as oratorios required fewer resources—no extravagant costumes or sets were needed.

Kathleen Vanderwil provides insight into Handel’s prolific output and his transition from opera to oratorios:

"[02:29] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...handel wrote a great many operas, over 40 operas. But after 1841 [sic], he wrote no further operas. But he wrote many other pieces of music, including many oratorios, and this is one."

Pat adds an economic perspective:

"[02:40] Pat Wright: ...it might be honestly more economical to do an oratorio. You don't have to spend as much money on costumes and sets."

Plot Overview

Semele is set in Thebes and revolves around the divine and mortal interactions that lead to tragedy and birth. The primary characters include:

• Cadmus: King of Thebes and father of Semele.
• Semele: Cadmus’s daughter, torn between her duty and her divine lover.
• Athamas: A young nobleman betrothed to Semele.
• Aino: Semele’s sister, also in love with Athamas.
• Jove (Zeus): King of the gods and Semele’s divine lover.
• Juno (Hera): Queen of the gods, jealous of Semele.
• Somnus: God of sleep.

Act I: The Favorable Union and Discord

The opera begins with Cadmus and the chorus celebrating favorable omens for Semele’s marriage to Athamas, blessed by Juno, the goddess of marriage.

"[05:28] Pat Wright: ...the chorus of priests as they are excited by the lucky omens that bless their rites."

However, Semele harbors reservations about the marriage, feeling torn between her father’s wishes and her own desires, influenced by Jove.

"[09:18] Pat Wright: ...She is thinking about her real life options now."

Aino expresses her distress, feeling undone by Semele’s wavering, adding another layer of conflict.

"[13:12] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...there are lots of gods and goddesses that are mentioned here with various backstories and myths of their own."

As omens turn unfavorable with thunder indicating Jove’s displeasure, Juno’s scheming becomes apparent.

Act II: Juno’s Quest and the Sibling Reunion

Juno, displeased with Semele, dispatches her messenger Iris to locate Semele. Their quest involves overcoming obstacles, including dragons guarded by Somnus, the God of sleep.

"[54:33] Pat Wright: No, she had to work really hard to find them."

Parallel to this, Semele enjoys her divine union with Jove but begins to feel unfulfilled, longing for the mortal connection she left behind. This creates tension in their relationship, highlighting themes of immortality versus mortality.

"[10:38] Pat Wright: ...She is addicted to him. She is entranced by him."

In Act II, the reunion of Semele with her sister Aino introduces further emotional depth, as Aino grapples with jealousy and her own unrequited love for Athamas.

"[27:41] Pat Wright: ...we get to hear a little bit about Athamas."

Musical Analysis

Handel employs several baroque musical techniques, most notably the da capo aria, allowing characters to express and revisit their emotions through repetition and variation.

"[29:08] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...da capo means to go back, like doing the ABA structure."

The chorus plays a significant role in advancing the narrative, reflecting the communal sentiments and divine interventions, akin to their function in Greek plays.

"[25:53] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...the chorus as well, who can alternately represent the common people or just sort of everybody who isn't one of the main characters."

Character Dynamics and Themes

The opera explores complex themes such as:

• Love and Jealousy: Semele’s love for Jove and her arranged marriage to Athamas create a love triangle exacerbated by Aino’s affection for Athamas.
• Divine Intervention: Juno’s manipulations and Jove’s capricious nature drive the plot towards its tragic conclusion.
• Mortality vs. Immortality: Semele’s mortal limitations contrast with Jove’s divine immortality, highlighting existential dilemmas.

Kathleen Vanderwil draws parallels between Semele and other myths, such as Cupid and Psyche, and fairy tales like Snow White, emphasizing the timeless nature of these narratives.

"[38:21] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...it sounds very similar to the Puck... something like a farce."

Climax and Conclusion

The tragic culmination occurs when Semele, upon pressing Jove to reveal his true divine form, is consumed by his lightning—fulfilling an irrevocable oath that leads to her death. However, her demise gives birth to Bacchus (Dionysus), symbolizing joy and the subsequent age of excess and ecstasy.

"[112:10] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...if I persist in gazing, no object sure before was ever half so pleasing."

The final act ties together the consequences of divine whims and mortal sufferings, leaving listeners with a bittersweet reflection on the intertwining of human desires and godly interventions.

Reflections and Insights

Throughout the episode, Pat and Kathleen offer keen insights into Handel’s compositional choices, the libretto’s origins, and the enduring relevance of Semele. They encourage listeners to explore Handel’s less-performed operas, advocating for supporting live performances to sustain this rich art form.

"[90:57] Pat Wright: ...this is not unusual for Handel's works. This is very much of a piece with what he was creating then."

Additionally, Kathleen highlights the nuanced portrayal of Semele as a strong, albeit tragic, female character who dares to confront divine authority, adding layers to the opera’s emotional landscape.

"[75:04] Kathleen Vanderwil: ...she plants her foot and says, I am going to fight with you."

Notable Quotes

• Pat Wright [00:35]: "This is a baroque opera by George Friedrich Handel and it's not about Romeo and Juliet."
• Kathleen Vanderwil [02:29]: "Handel wrote a great many operas, over 40 operas. But after 1841, he wrote no further operas."
• Kathleen Vanderwil [13:12]: "There are lots of gods and goddesses that are mentioned here with various backstories and myths of their own."
• Pat Wright [29:22]: "Da capo."
• Kathleen Vanderwil [75:04]: "She plants her foot and says, I am going to fight with you."
• Pat Wright [90:57]: "This is not unusual for Handel's works."

Conclusion

Episode 133 of Opera For Everyone masterfully navigates the intricate narrative and musical composition of Handel’s Semele, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of its dramatic and thematic elements. Through insightful discussion and detailed plot analysis, Pat Wright and Kathleen Vanderwil illuminate why this opera remains a significant, albeit less frequently performed, masterpiece in Handel’s repertoire.

Listeners are encouraged to support live opera performances and explore Handel’s diverse body of work to fully appreciate the depth and beauty of baroque opera.

Stay Tuned: The episode concludes by inviting listeners to subscribe, rate, and comment on the Opera For Everyone podcast, reinforcing the mission to make opera accessible and enjoyable for all.

"[121:19] Pat Wright: Our mission is to make opera enjoyable for everyone because we believe opera is for everyone."

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Note: This summary encapsulates the key points and discussions from the podcast episode, enriched with notable quotes and structured to provide a clear and engaging overview for those who haven't listened to the show.

Transcript

[Pat Wright]

Welcome to another edition of Opera for Everyone. I am your host, Pat Wright, and I am pleased to be once again joined by Kathleen Vanderwil.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So happy to be here, Pat.

[Pat Wright]

I'm thrilled you're here. And this is not like all the operas that we've done. Well, not that they've all been the same, honestly, but this is a baroque opera by George Friedrich Handel and it's.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Not about Romeo and Juliet. So it's a real change for us.

[Pat Wright]

Okay, well, we'll have to wait and see if we get through the whole podcast without a reference, but. But we're not going to focus on that. This opera is Semele by George Friedrich Handel, who of course is German by birth, but he is a naturalized English citizen and most of his operas that we have talked about, will talk about are in the Italian language, although produced in London. This, however, is not technically an opera, although it is often staged as such. Semele is an oratorio, or Handel himself even just called it an English opera, oftentimes just performed on a stage where you could see all the members on the stage of the orchestra performing with the chorus and the soloists.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes, I would say an oratorio takes a religious theme and usually almost always a Christian religious theme. So this is a bit of a change up. It's almost like an oratorio, but for the ancient Greek religion. But it fits well.

[Pat Wright]

Well, that's why when you have definitions of oratorios, they say usually a Christian religious theme or a sacred theme. This would not fall into that category. This oratorio, English Opera premieres in 1744 in London, and probably definitely the most famous oratorio written by Handel, famous to us today. Messiah. Messiah premiered in Dublin in 1742. So Handel in fact wrote a great many operas, over 40 operas. But after 1841, he wrote no further operas. But he wrote many other pieces of music, including many oratorios, and this is one.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And do we know why he wrote so many religious themed pieces of music? It's somewhat unusual for the opera composers that we have studied in the past.

[Pat Wright]

There are a variety of potential reasons. One is that the Italian language operas were falling out of fashion. They weren't as popular anymore. He was in a difficult spot in the early 1740s for Messiah's creation, he's invited to premiere for a charity concert, a beautiful work of art. And that's where we get the much beloved Messiah that premieres in 1742. And he, he's such a good businessman, Handel. He really is. He does go back to London and decide it's going to make more sense to do these oratorios. There was. I mean, there's a lot of history here. There's an opera company that was trying to rise and become the dominant producer of these great works of art. But Handel decides, I will do oratorio seasons. And that's what he does. It worked for him. It might be honestly more economical to do an oratorio. You don't have to spend as much money on costumes and sets. But some of these oratorios, like the one we're going to talk about today, Semele, they're so operatic that modern companies will perform them fully staged, fully costumed, and not with a choir standing in the back in what we think of as typical choir formation, but more you see a chorus feature in an opera moving around as characters on the stage.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So why don't we set the scene here? Like we mentioned, this is not a Christian oratorio. It's sort of known as a secular, quote, unquote, oratorio. Although since it's based on Greek mythology, that that's ancient Greek religion. So in a sense it isn't really secular, just that has become secularized in our society today.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So setting the scene here we are in Thebes. Cadmus is the king of Thebes and he is the father of Semele. They are celebrating the positive return of their sacrifice. They're wanting a marriage between Semele and Athamas, who is a young nobleman. Semele is not super jazzed about this, but her father wants this. And they have sent up a sacrifice to Juno, who is the queen of the gods, but also the goddess of marriage. She sort of blesses unions. And they have had this favorable return. She is happy with this pairing. And so they are celebrating that. But there's potentially a few. A few little flaws in this plan. As we begin, do we want to listen a little bit to their happiness and joy?

[Pat Wright]

Yes. Let's listen to the chorus of priests as they are excited by the lucky omens that bless their rites. And just to be clear, this is in English, so we may understand more than we typically do when we listen to these beautiful pieces of music.

[Chorus]

Happy moments, happy moment this all night.

[Pat Wright]

This all night this all.

[Chorus]

Alone Happy moment, happy moment.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Let's.

[Pat Wright]

The chorus of priests here in the opera Semile are celebrating that the omens have blessed their rights, the right of marriage that is upcoming. And they say peaceful days and fruitful nights attend the pair that she approves and that she, being Juno. And just for clarification, I know some people are more familiar with the Greek names of this pantheon of gods. Juno is Hera, and later on we will meet Jupiter or Zeus. And it will be the Roman names.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

That are used throughout, which was common during this time period. Although we and and probably me specifically will often be referring to this as a story about the Greek gods. That's mostly just because the Romans adopted those Greek gods. And then during this time period, it was very popular to reference the Roman names. I would say it switched back and forth in England, who we were most happy to reference. But at this point, yes, the Roman names were very popular. And that's mostly just because of the popularity of Rome, ancient Rome, and it as a model for modern, at that point, modern London government and society. But to get back to our story.

[Pat Wright]

Yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So we are happy. Juno is pleased. What could possibly go wrong? I don't see what the problem could be.

[Pat Wright]

Well, it's what you mentioned earlier, Semele. The bride to be does not seem to be happy. And we're going to listen to a little bit of the conversation. Not even conversation, but just the feelings of her father and her intended. Her father Cadmus and her intended Athamas. And they will both repeat the line, invent no new delay on this auspicious day. We can tell, sweetheart, that you are dragging your feet. Juno's given her approval. It's time to move on with this marriage.

[Chorus]

Day. On this auspicious day. Inventor delay on this aus.

[Pat Wright]

Has been told to invent no new delay. But we're going to hear a little bit one of those stage conversations where she's talking to us and letting us know what's going on and the rest do not hear what she's saying. She speaks directly to Job himself.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And it's not incredibly clear here how long she's been speaking to Jove or whether she's had more intimate contact with him at this point. But it's clear that she feels torn here between the duty to her father to marry Athamas or to follow her heart and the commands of her God, who is also a father figure in most representations of him, because he's the father of the gods who she's meant to obey in this instance. Ultimately, I think that choice becomes easier for her, a. Because Jove is a God, so he kind of trumps everybody else. But also, that's really where her heart lies. She is addicted to him. She is entranced by him.

[Pat Wright]

Right. She even says, jove, assist me. How can I Forego your love and yield to the passions of a. Of a mortal. She's already feeling very confident in her own station. She feels like she shouldn't have to degrade herself by being the wife of a mortal. Why do that when she's already has this alliance, shall we say, with the God, the greatest of the gods. But she doesn't want to do it without Jove's assent because she says otherwise. I will obey my father's will. So she's thinking about her real life options now.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Athamas, of course, gets a little bit of a look in here. Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

He may not hear her words, but he can. He can read the room.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

He. Yeah, he seems aware that his match is maybe not proceeding as smoothly as he would wish it to. He seems to genuinely be attracted to her. This isn't just a political marriage. And he calls upon this goddess, Hymen, also the goddess of marriage, in a way, and is basically trying to get her to be on his side. I think it's worth noting here that what Handel and Congreve, the librettist here, have done is really pull from a multitude of sources. So there's all sorts of gods and goddesses that are mentioned here with various backstories and myths of their own. Cadmus, for instance, is the founder of Thebes and has a whole set of stories of his own which all make for a fascinating reading. He's one of the sort of hero monster slayers of Greek mythology and is partly divine himself. His father is Poseidon, which of course makes the genealogy, if you follow it, a little bit strange because it means.

[Pat Wright]

She'S a little bit. She's pretzel tangled.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I know. Poseidon, of course, is the. The brother of Zeus. So. Yep. So it gets a little tangled, as it always does. But this is. This is a story in the Theban line. I would say the most famous of the Thebans is probably Oedipus, who becomes king of Thebes as well. But Cadmus is the original founder of Thebes, so we're back in time there. And has a number of children with his wife Harmonia, who is the goddess of harmony and. Not mentioned here, not mentioned here, but there's a very famous book about Cadmus and harmony, a series of myths. They have all sorts of children and all of them are kind of ill fated, including Semele.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, good thing there are no spoilers in opera, huh?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Well, I would say a good rule of thumb is if Jupiter or Zeus is interested in a woman, she is ill fated. There are no good stories there.

[Pat Wright]

That's true. Juno not allow it to be otherwise.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

But as we said, poor Athamas has some time to state his case. But importantly, it is actually not just the divine intervention that's making this wedding seem not quite perfect. We find out here as well that Semele's sister Aino is also in love with Athamas.

[Pat Wright]

Or we should get rid of the also and just say she is in love with Athamas, because Semele is not.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

True. Although she's interested for the sake of the political marriage, she's willing to. But you're right, she doesn't seem to express any particular feelings. Of course, she never probably gave him much of a chance if she's got Jove whispering in her ear the whole time.

[Pat Wright]

He's mortal.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right, exactly.

[Pat Wright]

Knock him off the list. Yeah, exactly.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And Aino is an interesting figure in this oratorio because she's sort of always just the sister. Semele is the one who is beloved by the gods, is beautiful, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, Aino herself is referred to as also being fair, but she's always second place, I think is the way that she's really depicted. And we'll see how that shakes out through the rest of the story.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah, she's more or less in the corner rooting for Semele to follow her own heart because everyone can see that Semele is wavering on this marriage. And Aino will declare, oh no, she's yielding to our father's wishes, to these auspicious omens. And that has undone me. That phrase gets repeated often. She has undone me or you have undone me. And it's just tearing Aino apart. It's just tearing her apart.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. We don't spend a lot of time with the sisters together, unfortunately, especially at the beginning here. But there are a few lines where it seems clear that Aino blames Semele for even considering the marriage. Really. Semele herself is of course in quite a difficult position that Aino doesn't seem to have a lot of sympathy for here. I mean, caught between two very powerful men who are both telling her to do certain things. But Aino is in a. Yeah, is in a kind of interesting position where she's trying to surf the waves of whatever happens in the gods minds and try to catch a good outcome for herself in the aftermath. Which honestly, as a side character in a myth is a good thing to do.

[Pat Wright]

Right.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Don't be a part of the central action.

[Pat Wright]

No, it's not never healthy. Well, with all these characters and all these feelings and thoughts, it's a wonderful time for a quartet, of course. And that's exactly what we're going to get. We're going to have all of these characters with all of these feelings. And they've noticed that Aino is deeply unhappy with what's going on from her peripheral side position. And her father says, why are you grieving? Our rights have been granted approval by the one who matters. Why are you complaining? What is wrong? Who's offended you? And she says, I'm upset at everyone, but I don't think it matters of all, but all I fear in vain she will repeat. And Athamas wants to be friendly. He wants to be a good brother in law. Can I, can I help you? Semele says, can I help relieve your pain? But nope, the answer is no, because the situation is such that Aino is going to be unhappy.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes, it's a little poor Jan syndrome, because she's kind of like, she's kind of like, no, none of you can help me, none of you understand me. But yeah, I mean, she's also in a, in a, in a hard position here. And I do feel for her as a character. There's no real clear reason why she couldn't marry Athamas, just that she doesn't seem to have been the firstborn daughter.

[Pat Wright]

That's not what the father wants.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah, and it's also. It doesn't seem to be. There's not a lot of details here, I would say. So we're kind of overlaying that. But it doesn't seem like Cadmus is aware in any sense of the Joe Semile connection. No, but Juno, and also not sure if Juno at this point knows about it, but it's very clear that Juno wants this marriage. And that's enough. It's like that's enough for them. They don't want to anger one of the most powerful gods that you could possibly anger, who's very quick to anger, by the way.

[Pat Wright]

And I believe Juno does know it. I mean, I don't know. I'm just saying, story wise, it seems like she knows because if she marries off this lovely young woman who's caught Jove's eye, that hopefully solves things.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And this is not the first time he's had his eye caught. So I'm sure she's always on the lookout. She very famously is associated with the peacock because the peacock has eyes everywhere to watch her husband as he goes about his exploits. So, yes, this is gonna happen, and maybe unless somebody has something to say about it.

[Pat Wright]

Ah, thunder. Listen for some thunder.

[Chorus]

Of whom dost thou complain? Of whom dost thou come here? I feel in pain.

[Pat Wright]

This is opera for everyone, and we're listening to Semele by Georg Friedrich Handel. An opera? Well, not an opera, an oratorio, an English opera that premiered in 1744. Semmelie's sister, Aino has just said, things aren't working out for me. None of you understand. You can't do anything to solve it. Then we hear thunder and we know whose calling card the thunder is.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And not only is thunder heard, but that. That fire that was on their altar that indicated Juno was happy with their sacrifices is extinguished at the same moment as the thunder sounds. So I. I suppose that means that Jove is not happy with this. And the priests take this quite hard, because as nice as it is to have pleased Juno, to have displeased Jove, is worse. Juno is known as a schemer. She likes to fulfill some maybe feminine stereotypes that are not necessarily good to talk about, but she's sort of a poisoner. She's. She used womanly wiles, quote, unquote, to get what she wants. And she's quite good at it, I would say. But Jove is a much more masculine stereotype. He uses giant bolts of thunder and lightning to get what he wants.

[Pat Wright]

Absolutely. And this catches everyone's attention. And we're going to listen to a little bit of the choral response. This same chorus of priests will say, oh, the omens maybe have changed here. Things are a little bit different from what we thought. And they even reference Job in their piece. They say Jove himself descends and he quenches our recent propitious fires.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Holy mo. Sa.

[Pat Wright]

Well, after this chorus of priests has said, oh, we know what these omens mean. Jove does not approve. The flames have been doused. Well, lo and behold, the flames come back again.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And we see here kind of a fight between Jove and Juno. She brings the flames back, he extinguishes them, she tries to bring them back, and he ultimately cracks the altar. Yeah. So that they cannot come back. And that, of course, really freaks the priests out.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, they've got a. An argument between these two powerful gods playing out in their town square.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. And. And this is a time in which. Or this is depicting a time in which a city needed the patronage of a God or goddess in order to be healthy. And they really would suffer if they lost that. And Cadmus, as we Mentioned is the founder of this city. It's a new city, it's a new kingdom, and he has had to go through quite a lot to get there. Once again, I very much recommend his exploits. They're fun. And so to lose that is. That's death, really. So they are very, very unhappy here. And, in fact, they say this wedding really has to stop because something is. Is truly angering Jove, and we can't move forward.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah, basically, disperse, everyone. It's impious to proceed. Be gone and fly from this holy place. With that was that same chorus of priests again, saying, you all got to get out of here. This wedding's not going to happen. It's too upsetting to Jove, and he's made his power clear, and we don't want to. We don't want to make him any more angry. So everyone leaves. But let's just talk for a moment about this. This use of the chorus. There is extensive use of chorus in this oratorio, which, again, if you think back to Handel's most famous oratorio, something that he had only recently premiered, when this comes out, Messiah, a lot of the story gets told through the choral pieces, and they're beautiful.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And this is particularly fitting for a story about Greek mythology, because that usually features in Greek plays, a chorus as well, who can alternately represent the common people or just sort of everybody who isn't one of the main characters or can represent the gods. So often you'll have, like, nymphs as the chorus, or you'll have the muses as a chorus or the graces or, you know, something like that. So just represents the sort of quote unquote, everybody else voices, but really does a great job of intensifying things. So that's a technique that's. That's quite famous. Also a very good job of telling us information that's happened off stage which also is employed in this oratorio as well.

[Pat Wright]

Yes, yes. So we've all listened to these priests who didn't have to be top in their class to know how to read these omens. They told them all to disperse. They did. But left alone on stage remain Athamas.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And Aino, the lovers that we maybe don't care that much about. I mean, like, I don't mean to give them too short shrift, but at this point, I feel like, yes, but I was like, okay, when are we gonna get to Semele and Jove here? You know, in time. In time. They do kind of. They make you wait a little bit. I would Say, for the real, like, central love story by first focusing on these humans and their sort of doomed love story. And there is a lovely sense here of Aino getting to really speak her piece about what she wants to the man that she loves, which is very unusual, I would say. This is very un. Greek, I would say, in a way.

[Pat Wright]

But it takes a little while to get there in this scene, because initially he is clueless as to what has upset Aino. He is focusing on his own despair, his own disappointment, his own sadness at losing Semele. And he sees the upset demeanor and behavior of Aino as sympathy for him.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And he is. He comes across as a very honest and genuine figure. I would say in these scenes, he is experiencing this loss, this feeling of losing the future he thought he was going to have. But finally, at some point, he gets. He gets wind of the fact Aino is. Her emotions are coming from more than just a place of disappointment, but instead, actually the opposite.

[Pat Wright]

Right. She says, I see that you're not gonna understand me no matter what happens, you just won't understand me. And suddenly the light bulb goes up over his head and says, oh, she has passions of her own. And we get her phrase again. You've undone me. Look not upon me. Guilt upbraiding, shame invading. You've undone me. Look not upon me.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Now, it might be a good time here to talk about what a da capo aria is and what the concept of da capo is in music here.

[Pat Wright]

Because it's very popular in this piece and Baroque pieces in general.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. And if you were forced to take piano lessons like I was, you may have remembered da capo alvine. Go back to, you know, the ending and then start again.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Like the head.

[Pat Wright]

Da capo.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So you'll notice in a lot, and especially in this aria, I feel like it's the first time we really hear this. It's the same phrases spoken or sung over and over and over again. So, Pat, do you want to talk a little bit about what that is?

[Pat Wright]

Well, I'll just. Just repeat the basics, which is this ABA structure where there's a line stated, there's another line that's B stated, and then we go back to the top and we say the same line, but it. But it gains more meaning, more inflection. And honestly, that's the general description of da capo aria. But there's a lot of a B, A, A, A, A, A, A to my ear, at any rate, so that you get a big chance for emphasis of certain ideas. And feelings in general in operas at this point, you've got the recitatives, which are not necessarily repeated at all, although they might be in this opera. This does not have a. It's over a three hour opera and it doesn't have a lot of text. But there's a lot of musical exploration that goes on with the text that we have to really drive home thanks to the music and thanks to the text, with the music, the feelings that these characters are experiencing. But she really drives it home that you've undone me. And he wants to atone. He feels sorry for her suffering. And actually, the piece that we're gonna listen to now is a duet, they're calling it, with these two characters. But. But you do get this repetition of the lines and we get that throughout. This entire opera may not be fully represented because we play clips as we go along.

[Chorus]

You undone me. Look not on me. Look not on me. Give up reading Fear invading shame. Look not on me. You and on me. You and me. With my life I would atone. S has to shiny. You undone me. With my life I will let hold. Love alone has fallen. Cease to shun me. Cease to shun me. You cannot hold me. Cease to shun me. Nam.

[Pat Wright]

That was Aino, Semele's sister, and Athamas, her recently betrothed, her recently intended. Singing together, realizing that there could be something between them. And they finish by saying, love alone has both undone. Well, the scene experiences a bit of a change when Aino and Semele's father, Cadmus, enters and he's sympathetic to the prince, to Athamas having lost his love, it seemingly to Jupiter, to Job.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Now, I do want to take just one quick second here to talk a little bit about Athamas.

[Pat Wright]

Sure.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Just because we're. We're not gonna really see him again until the very end.

[Pat Wright]

And then only briefly.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right. And then only briefly. So. I know. And Athamas, there's an interesting line here in what we're about to listen to. Cadmus calls him a wretched prince, that he's doomed here. And this is interesting just for maybe put a little note in it if you want to do further reading. All of these. Like I said, it's all part of this. I mean, it's like a soap opera. It really is. It's like they don't call it opera for no reason. No, but I mean also the source material is like a soap opera. And it's kind of like we're on season five of General Hospital here. But there is A season six and seven. And if you want to go further, Athamas and Aino end up having children later on. And there is a whole set of shenanigans that go on there. He has a previous marriage to a goddess, so there's a whole set of other things. And he. Let me just say he has some very. He is doomed to some sadness in his future. So this is an interesting little piece that Congreve and Handel keep in here that if you want to know more about this very, very small character, but they give him a little, like, pay attention. He's doomed in the future.

[Pat Wright]

And I do have a sense that audiences in the mid 18th century would have greater familiarity with all of these stories than most of us do today.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Absolutely. At this time. And really, for a couple of hundred years after and a couple of hundred years previous to go back to, these were the stories. You know, like, there are some other stories and fairy tales and things that have emerged that we've seen become subject matter for operas and plays and poems and ultimately novels. But it's really a very strong percentage is the same well that keeps being dipped into of the ancient mythology that we know. So, yeah, you're right. I mean, it's not to spend too much time comparing it to contemporary things, but it is very much like a. Like a cultural knowledge. Maybe these days you'd know all the ins and outs of the various housewives or things like that. It's like there's a common source of, like, oh, yes, okay, I remember that guy. So it is very likely that people might have been aware, at least vaguely, that there's a story with Athamas, that there's a story with Cadmus, et cetera.

[Pat Wright]

Mm. Well, Cadmus comes in and he describes. We don't see it necessarily on stage, but he describes to us what has happened to Semele. With azure flames she was graced around her head. And they see an eagle coming down on purple wings descending.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And the eagle is the symbol. One of the symbols of Jove or Zeus.

[Pat Wright]

Yes, of course. Of course. And Cadmus tells us suddenly he snatched the trembling maid. Not sure what the tremble's about, but could be a number of things.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Well, I guess if you're about to be raised into the sky by a bird.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah, but she was. She was asking.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

The method of travel would make anyone tremble, I think.

[Pat Wright]

And soaring from our sight conveyed, diffusing ever as he lessened flu, celestial odor and ambrosial dew. And that gets referenced a few times whenever Job is on the scene was on the scene, about to be on the scene. There is a celestial odor which.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Okay.

[Pat Wright]

It's not just that you see him and you hear him, you can smell him.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Heavenly cologne. Okay.

[Pat Wright]

And it's. I think this is a little bit of comedy here. I don't expect it's meant to be that way, but it can be played that way. Arthamis is. Is. Oh, no, this is dire. And Aino says, oh, this could be a very fortunate event for me.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

It is. And. And I think it's. It's pertinent to pause for a second here to talk a little bit about the tone, because there are moments like this that are quite funny, and there is a sort of comedy of manners here that may remind. You may be reminded of some of the Shakespearean comedy of manners. Like Comedy of Errors, for instance, reminds me of a little bit where you've got multiple pairs of lovers and they've kind of gotten crossed. Right. The wrong person is with the wrong person. And the question sort of is, will the tangle come out in the end and the right person marry the right person, et cetera. And especially in this case, where you've had. You have a God involved too. There's. There's a sort of elevated marriage plot here. But I think, to me, it's. It sort of seems likely that part of the muddiness of tone, which I think sometimes happens, where sometimes it feels like sort of an epic love story, and other times it feels sort of like a. Almost like a farce.

[Pat Wright]

Right.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Is to do with the fact that the libretto for this was actually written quite a bit earlier than the Oratorio itself and was written for a different opera.

[Pat Wright]

And that's par for the course during the Baroque period.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Very much so, yeah. So it was originally written right around the beginning of the 18th century by William Congreve for an opera by a man named Eccles that was never. It was never produced because there wasn't a desire for it. They sort of. They tested the waters, and people said, yeah, I'm not that interested. I think what's interesting about this is Congreve is mostly known for Restoration comedies.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, mostly comedy.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. Comedies of manners, satire. And it's a very different era in which he's writing. He's born in 1670, so he's really writing at least full generation, maybe two, before this gets produced. And I think we see in the Baroque era, there's a little bit of a different tone in what's being produced and the kind of humor people are interested in. But I really find that Congreve's humor especially lingers here and we see that sort of comedy of manners that harkens back to Shakespeare and to other wonderful writers. So keep an eye on that as we, as we go forward.

[Pat Wright]

Hail Cadmus. Hail. That's what the, the chorus of priests and augurs, fortune tellers sing Hail Cadmus, Hail. Because Jove salutes the Theban king. So Jove has bestowed favor is how they are reading this. By taking the daughter of the king. I mean, when the, when the guy, the head God favors your child, that is reflected glory. And that's what these, these folks seem to be saying here. Even if there's some other people who are a little upset by it.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Other people meeting specifically Juno, who won't take this lying down. Yeah, I mean there's. They. Humankind just gets caught in the middle of so often with the gods.

[Pat Wright]

I don't think that's what's going on in this entire story. We call it, it's called Semele, but it's really about the gods. They're just pawns in the gods world.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. And I mean the gods being immortal and eternal too. There's a different perspective. Right. So like even as this is presented as in some ways this sort of nice love story between Semele and Jove, Jove is an immortal with an immortal wife and so that she is a blip in time to him. Yes, because they have that perspective. Humans just mean less to them, I think, in, in every way, even royal humans. So yes, people get caught in the middle. And that is where all of Thebes is right now.

[Pat Wright]

That's right. But. And right now they're saying, hey, we've been favored by the head God. This is great.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right? What are you gonna do, you know, take, take the favor while you got it.

[Pat Wright]

That's right. And we're going to end the act one. This is. It's a three act opera. This is the end of Act One. And we're going to end it by changing our focus and seeing Semele because after all, she's been snatched up by this eagle on purple wings with this celestial scent. And Semele seems pretty happy.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She does. She is enjoying, in her words, endless pleasure and endless love. Of course that's telling that she calls it endless because it isn't endless. As we just said, she's not immortal, so it can't be endless. And I think that's an important word to once again sort of think about for later. She is enjoying his Love. He is laying with her he's on her bosom, she says. So she gets to see him in repose. She gets to see the softer side of him. She says his thunder is useless now because he's giving her his softness and his love. His lightning only remains in his eyes for her. And it's. It's very pastoral and sweet. We do know that she's been taken, right? She's been taken somewhere and we'll kind of learn more about where, quote, unquote, that is. Yeah, but she is removed from everybody. She just has him. They have this little love nest. But for now, she's very happy with that arrangement.

[Pat Wright]

Very happy.

[Chorus]

Endless pleasure. Endless pleasure Endless love Endless to. To resigning and is lightning to her eyes to her eyes, to her eyes Lightning to Endless pleasure Endless pleasure Endless pleasure Endless pleasure Endless love. Celebrity and joys are born Endless love and less love Celebrity and joy.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Sa.

[Chorus]

Sama sa.

[Pat Wright]

We have ended the first act of our three act opera by George Friedrich Handel Semele. And act two begins in a very gentle place. We have a pleasant country. We have beautiful mountains, woods and waterfalls. I think this might be a nice time to hear a little bit of this Sinfonia, as it's called, a prelude to the second act, a purely instrumental piece. During this music that begins the second act of our three act opera in this beautiful land. In a traditional staging of the opera, Juno will appear in a chariot drawn by peacocks, as you mentioned. Peacocks, her symbol. And there's another person who's going to show up, Iris. And she appears from another direction, carried on a rainbow.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And, well, she is the rainbow, actually. She's the personification of the rainbow in mythology. And Greek mythology is a system of belief where gods represent everything. So there's a God of this flower and that waterfall and et cetera, et cetera. So Iris is the literal personification of what rainbows are, which is kind of lovely, but she's also a messenger, which also fits because that's a nice little Christian connection there. You know, the rainbow was sent as a message, right. And I'm sure that our more religiously inclined friends could do a lot of interesting commentary there with that. But she is also known as a bit of a helper, handmaiden to Hera or Juno, mostly because Mercury or Hermes, who is the true God of messages, he's more of a crony of Zeus or Jove, right? So she turns to her crony, her messenger, Iris, and says, I need you to help me out with this problem. I'M having. Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

In some of the productions that I watch, she comes in basically dressed up like an administrative assistant with a clipboard. Yeah, boss, here we go. Here's what I've done. But Juno did assign her a task.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. So she has asked her to find Semele's abode. Where Semele is, Where the love nest is.

[Pat Wright]

Yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And so they descend into this beautiful valley. There's this gorgeous mountain with waterfalls all around them. And Iris is telling her, I found where they are, but it's not quite so simple.

[Pat Wright]

No, she had to work really hard to find them.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She did, yes. And she's gone sort of round. Round the whole globe, basically. I will note here that I really feel like Congreve cribbed a little from Shakespeare. I don't know if it rings to you when you hear this, but it sounds to me very, very similar to the Puck. The Puck dialogue with Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Oberon has asked him to go find a flower and he says, yes, I've gone around the world three times, and et cetera, et cetera.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah, she references three times here as well.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So there's a lot of little references there, which is nice, but, yeah, so she's found them. Unfortunately, I would say Semele is rather well protected. And so there's going to have to be a series of side quests, I guess you could call it, that. Juno is going to have to go on in order to reach Semele. And in this sense, it's actually a little bit of a different tone here. Where you have. The Juno story is sort of harkens back to more traditional Greek stories of like, I'm gonna set you three labors or something, and if you do these three things, then you'll achieve your quest's end. And so there's a couple of things they're gonna have to do together here.

[Pat Wright]

So what are these three tests? Or what are these three obstacles?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So one is dragons.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, good.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Of course, yes, of course. There are two dragons that are guarding the entrance to the mountain where Semele is resting. So that's one thing that they have to figure out, what to do. That's the first test that she'll have to go through. So she says, okay, well, how are we going to fix this? How are we going to put this. Put them out of the way. And she says, okay, well, maybe we could go and talk to the God of sleep and see if he can give us his wand. So that's sort of the second thing is like, we have to go and do that, and if we get the wand from him, then we can boop the dragons on the nose or something, and then we're knock him out. But then, of course, the question that will be raised a little bit later is, okay, well, how do you get the wand from the goddess Sleep? And that's the third part of the quest. But for now, we have our marching orders, which is we're going to go find Somnus, the God of sleep, and get something to help with these. These pesky dragons.

[Pat Wright]

Yes. And then this scene finishes with just. I find it a charming little piece, a little comical at times, where Juno will repeat, hence Iris, hence away far from the realms of day and she's got her marching orders, but it repeats it. It's like one of those scenes where you tell someone to leave, but you keep telling them to leave because you really want to emphasize it so they have to stay and listen to you.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Exactly right. She has to keep coming back. Once again, it really feels like Puck here. It's that charming little bumbling messenger a little bit. Yeah. Some comic relief here. For.

[Chorus]

To the mini ocean lake A speedy flight we'll take, we'll take hence Iris hints away Iris hints away Away, away A speedy fly a speedy flight will take A speedy flight will take A speedy flight will take A speedy, A speedy life will take the song whose I compel is down Even to live in silence with noise and light with noise and light I will his peaceful rest Nor shall he sink again to pleasing rest Till to my vowed be n he grants our eyes and sees we see.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I.

[Chorus]

From the realms of day. Far from that.

[Pat Wright]

You're listening to Opera for Everyone, a radio show and podcast that embraces drama and story through love of music.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Opera for Everyone airs Sundays from 9 to 11am Mountain Time on 89.1 Khol, Wyoming's only community radio station.

[Pat Wright]

If you'd like to hear more conversations about opera, please subscribe to the Opera for Everyone podcast. And if you subscribe and rate us, you'll be helping with our mission to bring opera to everyone by helping others to find this show.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Stay with us. The second half of today's show is coming right up.

[Chorus]

Sam.

[Pat Wright]

Welcome back to the second half of Opera for Everyone. Today we are talking about Handel's, not opera oratorio, but, you know, wink, wink. Opera Semile. I am your host, Pat Wright, and I am here today once again with Kathleen Vanderwil. Welcome back, Kathleen.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So happy to be here talking about such an Interesting piece of music.

[Pat Wright]

There's so much going on here. The music is. Is exquisite and the story is rich and there's a lot, a lot we could be talking about. But first, I want to just call everyone's attention to the fact that Kathleen writes a wonderful substack called constructive Criticism. If you like Kathleen's takes on culture of any sort. Mostly more modern things, I would say. Certainly everything more modern than this. But, Kathleen, I just love reading what you're watching, reading, listening to, and see if it's something that might line up for my next watch or my next listen.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes, I try to just give my recommendations of what I found and what I've sifted through, and also maybe some things you might want to avoid. So, yeah, check it out.

[Pat Wright]

Constructive Criticism. You can find it on substack, or you can just Google constructive criticism. Kathleen Vanderwell. Well, we need to say thank you to all the people who were involved in creating this beautiful music that we've been listening to today. We're listening to a recording that was made in 1993 by the English Chamber Orchestra, led by John Nelson, and it features the Ambrosian Opera Chorus under the direction of John McCarthy.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Jupiter is sung by John Aller. Cadmus and Somnus are both sung by Samuel Ramey. And that we'll note here as follows, a tradition from the very first performance of doubling these roles. Semele is sung by Kathleen Battle. Athamas is sung by Michael Chance. I know. And Juno, once again, doubled roles sung by Marilyn Horne. And Iris is sung by Sylvia McNair.

[Pat Wright]

Thank you, one and all, for this exquisite recording. What a cast. You know what time it is?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Is it opera helmet quiz time?

[Pat Wright]

It is opera helmet quiz time. Can you bring us up to date on what we've discovered in the plot so far?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Absolutely. So we have set ourselves down in the kingdom of Thebes. The king of Thebes, Cadmus, and his daughters Aino and Semele, are some of our main characters here. Cadmus really wants his daughter Semele to marry Athamas, who is a prince, a nobleman, but she already has a suitor, and it just so happens it's the king of the gods, Jove. And he has been whispering in her ear, maybe you should come away with me instead of marrying this guy. She's been torn between duty to her father and her kingdom and duty to her God lover. Unsurprisingly, the God wins out and wafts her away on breezes and eagles carry her into the purple rings. Yeah, all very Grand. But back in the human realm still, her sister Aino, while obviously lamenting that her sister has been carried off by eagles, also is maybe a little happy about this because she is also in love with Athamas, and this might give her an opportunity to be the second choice, but maybe in a good way.

[Pat Wright]

And shares that wish with us in a stage aside.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And then we see Semele and Jove are deeply in love. They're experiencing sort of endless pleasure and are in this little love nest, but hovering outside, there's this threat, which is that Jove, of course, is married.

[Pat Wright]

Of course.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Just a small fly in the ointment there. He is famously married to Juno, who is the queen of the gods, and is famously jealous, and she is always chasing after him and trying to disrupt his little affairs.

[Pat Wright]

And one of her great roles in the pantheon is to be the protector of marriage, including her own.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. She's trying very hard to preserve the sanctity of marriage here. And in fact, at the beginning, we know that she has been trying to cast her favor upon Semele and Athamas marriage, but that doesn't work out. So she sends Iris, who is her messenger, and says, I need you to find me Semele. Iris does, and then relates that Semele is guarded by these dragons and they'll have to find a way to get the dragons out of the way. So they're going on a quest to the God of sleep to see if they can get his staff or his wand to put the dragons to sleep. There's lots of things we're about to see and a lot of good story coming up. But we left our characters right there where Juno is about to go on her quest and Semele is enjoying this love affair.

[Pat Wright]

Yes. And the palace where she is staying was purpose built for her by Vulcan, we're told, under the command of Job, saying, make a nice place for my new love.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And Vulcan is always one of my favorite of the gods. He is the husband of Aphrodite, goddess of love. Yes, Goddess of love, Venus. It combines their beauty and love with industry and production. So he's the God of the forge, so he takes the beautiful thoughts of his wife and he makes them real. So he's also the God, sort of craftsmanship, which I've always loved. Yes. So they are hidden away in their love nest, away from the rest of the world right now.

[Pat Wright]

Right. And the piece that we heard right at the end of part one, it's just Semele on her own. She is Just reveling in her new situation, glad to have not been forced into a marriage that she didn't desire because she's been charmed by Jove. Why have a mortal when you can have the king of the gods is her way of looking at it. Anyway, there may be a good answer to that, why it's a better choice, but that's not how she sees it at this point. Well, in this second scene of Act 2, which is where we are right now, we will once again see Semele on her own in her newly constructed palace for love. She's in bed. She's reclining. And wishing she were still asleep, she sings, oh, sleep, why dost thou leave me? Why do I. I lose those beautiful dreams, those beautiful visions that I have during sleep. And you see, she's feeling a little uneasy because Jove is not necessarily a lover that you can count on to be true.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And not only is he not true, he's just not there. And I think that's a big issue for her. This is the first time that we see her start to have a little bit of a doubt about all of this. And in fact, we have right before she sings that we have this little scene where Cupid, or one of the choral members perhaps sings about the need to revive the dying flames of her love, that maybe they're starting to be a little bit of a faltering short period of paradise inspires some new desire in her. And he calls on the winds, the Zephyrs, to sort of, I don't know, blow up her desire. Yeah, so there is, yeah, there's trouble in paradise, as we say. This really reminds me so, so much of another myth, the myth of Cupid and Psyche. So I'll really, really briefly talk about that here. Cupid and Psyche, the source we know is almost a thousand years after the source for this story, which is from O. Ovid's Metamorphosis. So it's really likely that the two stories sound very similar because they are from similar sources. They've been conflated, but basically Cupid and Psyche. Psyche is a mortal princess. Cupid falls in love with her. Cupid, of course, being the God of love. And Aphrodite's son falls in love with her. And the Zephyrs spirit her away up a mountain to a fabulous palace that's been constructed just for her, sounding for many and the God of love. And they are so happy together. And they stay there for a while, but he is gone a lot. She's alone a lot and she has these sisters. And you'll start to see also there's a little bit of a resonance of, like ugly stepsister Cinderella here, too. She has these sisters who are very jealous that they weren't chosen and are also jealous of her good fortune, her supposed wealth. And so they go to visit her, but they can't see the palace. It's invisible to them. And they see her and they say, oh, you're just here in this. This valley alone. There's nothing around. You must be crazy, or it must be truly a monster who has you in his den, and he's enchanted you to think that you're in this palace. And so they say, what you have to do is you have to turn on the lights when you're with him. Because she's only ever seen him at night, in the dark, because he says, I'm too radiant. If you saw me, you would be blinded by my glorious radiance. And so they say to her, you should take a lamp and look at him. And she does, and she spills the oil on him and she burns him. And he is spirited away by his mother to be healed, and she's left alone, and she's cast out into the wilderness and has to wander in the wilderness and go through some quests and tests in order to make amends for her faithlessness. So there's some real resonances here of a similar story, of this idea of when you love a God, you have to take a lot on faith, I.

[Pat Wright]

Think, quite literally, and don't test them.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right. And perhaps there's a reason why they're not showing you their true form as well. Yeah, but as we said, Semele is here. She is starting to really miss Jove and wonder where has he gone all this time?

[Pat Wright]

She will say, to my arms restore my wandering love. This aria, by the way, oh, Sleep, why dost thou leave me? Is probably the most well known of the single arias that Semele sings. It is a big piece for her, honestly. I think there's some other pieces I prefer to this one. But it's beautiful because here she is, she's gotten everything she wants, but things aren't quite right.

[Chorus]

Why dost thou leave me? Why thy to sleep again? Restore my wandering love. I wondering, Love restored my wandering wall.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Me.

[Chorus]

We.

[Pat Wright]

Semele pining away for Jupiter who is not present in their little love nest. But sure enough, he will appear.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes, she's opining. And of course, then he appears.

[Pat Wright]

Perfect.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Perfect timing. And he says, really, you shouldn't doubt Me, she says, I'm really afflicted with these doubts. And also jealousy, I think, is notable. She mentions. And of course that's going to ring an alarm bell in his head because he already has a jealous wife. Doesn't mean a jealous mistress. Yes, exactly. But he tries to soothe this and says, oh, I'm not like men. I'm a God. I would never deceive you. Don't.

[Pat Wright]

I may look like a man, but I'm not one. This is not who I really am. I mean, he's. He's setting up for what's going to come. When he says I may look like a man, I'm just. This is just a. So you can see me and relate to me.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Now, I have to say, we spend a lot of time with Semele and Jove, or Jupiter, and this is constructed as, oh, isn't this sort of a lovely little love story? Like, in a way, I feel like I was rooting for them a little bit. Like I wasn't, oh, he's horrible. When I first watched this, but going back and looking at the way he treats her and how he talks to her, I really kind of started to feel it was a little more ugly.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So one thing he does that I feel like is a red flag. Ladies, if your man does this, that's a red flag. He gaslights her. He says, well, I wasn't gone. You're mortal. You need to sleep. So, of course, I had to be gone so you could get some rest. I, of course, don't have to sleep because I'm a God. I wasn't absent. I left love with you. Love, quote, unquote. But also literally, maybe Cupid was watching over her. He says, because you love me, I am love. So I'm never gone. I'm always here because love is here in your heart. And it's just this little, like, okay.

[Pat Wright]

Sir, he does say all that, and it is a little bit of a danger signal. And yet he is immortal. She is mortal. She has mortal needs. So, you know, you can go along with his line of argument so far.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So they've been having this argument, this sort of light lover spat. But she kind of kicks it up a notch because she really says she has this beautiful, beautiful little. This little air where she says, my bliss is expiring. Here. She says, fond desiring with bliss expiring. So things are starting to sour for me. And she deconstructs his little I'm love and I'm Jove. And she says, if this be love, not you alone, but love and I are one. She's going back and forth and saying, I see you.

[Pat Wright]

Right.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I see what you're trying to do here, but one of the things I like about Semele as a character is she does go head to head with this God. She doesn't.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, indeed she does.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She doesn't back down and say, oh, you're right, you're a God. You're right. She sort of plants her foot and says, I am going to fight with you and I'm going to have this. As if we are truly two people on the same level. Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

Which I've got to say, that doesn't make me like her as a character, because guess what? He is a God and she is not.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Well, yes, but she. She claims, I think, emotional equality with him, which I like.

[Pat Wright]

She does.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Okay. She doesn't lay down like a little, oh, nice little spaniel, do what I want. I like that about her. She's a little spicy, but might end up badly for her. You are correct that it is maybe not a wise thing for her to do, but I think as a character, it makes her more interesting. I think she'd be kind of boring if she said, you're right, Jove, you're so beautiful. I'll do whatever you want.

[Pat Wright]

No, she's got spunk.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

We'll give her.

[Pat Wright]

We'll give her that. Well, and these two are never alone, really. We've got this chorus of loves and zephyrs on the periphery, and they're going to comment just like the chorus of priests did earlier. They're going to comment on the action of what's going on. How engaging, how endearing in a lover's pain and care. What joy. The nymphs appearing after absence or despair. And they are just going to say.

[Chorus]

Sam Satisfaction.

[Pat Wright]

The chorus has commented on this relationship between Semele and Jove, but nothing's changed. We've gotten a beautiful commentary, but we've gotten commentary. And Jupiter. Jove is starting to show some concern about her worries about him.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And just for context, Jupiter and Jove are just interchangeable. Jove's kind of a nickname, but we were talking about this off mic that they use it interchangeably. The characters will call him Jove, but in the text he's referred to as Jupiter. So that's why we're saying both of.

[Pat Wright]

Them one in the same.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. He still wants to placate her here. He wants to just sort of get her to go back to being, oh, endless pleasure. Endless joy. That version of Her. So they continue to have this fight, and it becomes clear what the fight is really about in a minute here. So we. We begin to understand. And he begins to understand that what she's worried about is that their love isn't endless because she is mortal, as we mentioned earlier. And she sees that there cannot be real equality between them as lovers because of that. Now, just to pause for a second, I want to make it very clear that Jove is incredibly capable of making anyone he wants into a deity. He can do it, and he does it all the time.

[Pat Wright]

And she knows that.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And she knows that. So this is a thing that many, many characters will eventually become minor gods or goddesses and be given immortality as a gift or as a punishment or just, you know, for something they've done or accomplished or because somebody likes them. So she knows this is a real possibility. But of course, we also know, and she knows that he has a wife who is a goddess. And she might not look super fondly on elevating your mistress to the status of immortality.

[Pat Wright]

Right, right. And yet she is self confident, Semelee. She is very self confident. And when he says, oh, there's something you want, my love, what is it you want? I would love to grant your wish. And she explains that her position is fragile where she is. I tremble because I am mortal. Whenever you leave me, I get worried. I'm fearful of what you might be doing. And he replies that there is danger in aiming at immortality for her. It could be very dangerous. And in his aria coming up, he's going to try to change the subject to get her off this topic.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. This is another thing I like about Semele, is she must know that she's one of multitudes here. I mean, she would have known about his wife. She would have known that this is a thing because these stories are always about just as we know them. The characters often know them in the stories as well. But she dares to say, I am worth being the one that you do decide to keep around. I'm gonna say maybe I get to be the second wife. It is very spunky. It is hubris, too.

[Pat Wright]

It is, yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Because, of course, I think we can see that she is one of many. She's just the latest flavor of the month a little bit, unfortunately. What? He's. He's a dog, I have to say. He really is.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah. Yes. Yes. But he's in this. He's typically played as so charming.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Oh, yeah. I mean, he'd have to be charming to. Or actually, you know, what I take that back. He doesn't have to be charming because he is the God of all gods. He doesn't have to charm. He could just take whatever he wants, but he chooses to charm. And this sort of vision of Zeus or Jove or Jupiter is a Lothario, is an interesting one.

[Pat Wright]

Well, he's going to tell us. I must with speed amuse her. That's that diversion I was talking about.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I treat her like a child here.

[Pat Wright]

Very much so. We can't have her looking too close into this or pressing this point.

[Chorus]

I must speed amuse her lest she do much explain. Lest she too much explain. I must with speed amuse her lest she too much expect. I must with speed. I must with speed unuse her lest she too much. Lest she too much explained. I must with speed unuse her lest she too much explain. I must with speed amuser, lest ye too much expense. I must with speed. I must with speed am. Use her, lest she too much explain. Lest she too much explain, Lest she too. It gives the lover double pain who hears his nymph complain and hearing must refuse her. And hearing must refuse her Is it gives the lover double pain who hears his nymph complain and hearing must refuse her. And hearing must refuse her.

[Pat Wright]

Well, Kathleen, what's his diversionary tactics? What is Jove going to do to get Semele to stop thinking about her wish to become immortal?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. That's a bit of a weird one. His distraction is to bring her sister to her. Yeah. Which is actually very thoughtful. Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

You're lonely. I'll get you sister.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right? Yeah. It's actually extremely thoughtful, although it does not actually address the problem she's brought to him.

[Pat Wright]

No.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

He says, I'm gonna have my winged zephyrs. The zephyrs are sort of minor wind gods to sort of spirit her from her bed to see you. And she hasn't seen her sister. I mean, we don't really know how much time has passed here, too, but for however long, she has not seen her sister. So this is a special moment for her.

[Pat Wright]

And Jove explains that when your sister shows up, she won't see me, because, Semele, only you can see me. The God, I only let you see me. Your sister will not. But you will see your sister, and she will see you.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So he's gonna spirit her sister to her. He hopes that this is gonna, at least for a while, put her off. And then he has, I think, my favorite piece, maybe in this oratory. It was really beautiful. It's a piece called where you walk. And I think it's one of the more famous ones from this. He has this really beautiful sentiment to her. And maybe he's. This is me sort of putting this in here. But maybe he realizes that this isn't enough. Oh, here's your sister. Because he kind of gives this as a second thing without her saying anything. He says, I also am going to say that I am going to cast forever my favor on you. That wherever you walk, wherever you go in this life, your life will be easy. There will be a cool wind when it's hot. When you sit under a tree, it'll be very shady for you. Wherever you walk, there will be flowers, and everything is going to flourish in front of you in a way, kind of casting her as like a fertility goddess, that she is going to inspire growth and beauty in her.

[Chorus]

And it's a beautiful sentiment. Trees where you sit shall crown into a shade Trees where you sit shall crown in a tomb. A shame where are you who gale shall find the grave shall crown into a sa. And all things flourish and all things flourish Wherever you turn your eyes Wherever you turn your your eyes Wherever you turn your eyes.

[Pat Wright]

I've read that these lines or some of these lines were inspired by or taken from Alexander Pope. And insert it in here.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. It seems that Congreve, in the original libretto, was friendly with Pope, I think, and they're working in the same period. He's a poet and essayist in England and was known for neoclassical themes. So he has a lot of poems that focus on Greek gods and goddesses. We don't know exactly too, too much about it, but, yeah, it seems like some of Pope made his way into this, which I think really supports my theory that Shakespeare also got cribbed in a little bit because it seems that he liked to borrow a little bit from the poets that he loved.

[Pat Wright]

Well, there's inspiration in all forms of art that they take from earlier artists.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And this wouldn't have been considered weird at all. Yeah, that's very common during the time period.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah. And it's interesting just to note. Alexander Pope was a big supporter of Handel's for the most part, especially during that period of time when he went up to Dublin, too. Complete and premier Messiah just a couple of years earlier. He was a big booster for Handel because Handel, his career did ebb and flow a little bit. But with this series of oratorios, these seasons of oratorios that I mentioned earlier that this was part of the second season, that was a way for him to get Back on top. Just a side note about his operas. His operas, we said, did fall out of favor, but they fell out of favor in a. A big, big way between 1754, which is just a few years before Handel's death, but before handel's death, between 1754 and 1920. So that's well over 150 years. None of his operas that we know of were ever even staged. His other music, he wrote a tremendous amount of music. His other music continued to be played. Messiah straight through. Oratorios, some of them, but not the operas. And he wrote so many operas. It's a fascinating story for Handel.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah, that's very interesting having. Having now seen this. This is maybe just a feature broke opera. It does feel very different, very unique to what I am at least used to, 19th century opera especially. It is really a fascinating mix. And that oratorio aspect of it is also just so interesting because. Because it's just not really the way we are used to having stories told to us. So I am glad to see that it has come back into favor because it is a real artifact of its time period and the sound too. There are instruments in this that really mark it for the time period that it's in, such as the harpsichord, which you'll hear in many of these pieces.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah. Although I would say that this is not unusual for Handel's works. This is very much of a piece with what. What he was creating then. Anyway, I just wanted to call your attention to this because his operas, you will see them produced. Take a chance on seeing them. It's wonderful. Well, we always say on opera for everyone, please go see a full opera when you can. If you want to stream something, that's wonderful, but support the opera companies that are around where you're living. That's how we keep this amazing art form alive and accessible to all of us. So Aino is going to show up and see Semelee.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So the sisters are reunited and Aino take some time to talk about her journey and give us a little bit of her mortal perspective on where she is and how she's gotten there, which I like that they take time to do this because it really emphasizes how far apart from the world Semele is now.

[Pat Wright]

Yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So she talks about I had to fly through states and towns and hills and valleys and barren wastes and really talks about that. It's been this huge, long journey. And now that I'm here, I see this is a place set apart. There's no sound here except for this air is full of charm. It sounds, she says, like this isn't natural. Something's a little, a little off. This isn't mortal life.

[Pat Wright]

This is not the world she knows. And she's. Think about it, she's just been scooped up by these winds and carried over the. I mean, it's quite a journey that she's been through.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And it makes me think of. So probably the best treatment of this story and the Psyche story that I mentioned earlier, this Cupid and Psyche story is the novel Till we have faces by C.S. lewis, which is a retelling of Cupid and Psyche, but elaborated on and embroidered with a lot of other elements. And a lot of, I think, elements of the Semele story are in there as well. But in that novel he makes it clear that when this Psyche or Semilli character has gone off with the God, the people who are left behind think she's dead. They have no idea what really happened to her. They see her carried off and it's like, well, is it a God that took her? Is it a monster? We don't really know. Has she been torn apart by wild beasts? We don't know. So there is this element of she's just been completely removed from her world, her society. She was princess, she was an important political figure, and now she is just put in a bubble for the God's pleasure. And so to have somebody from that world to bring back the human, political, mortal, smelly, normal world, I think is a great moment here and I think really starts a process of her having to examine if she's made the right choice.

[Pat Wright]

Yes. And so we get this lovely duet with the two sisters back together again, thrilled to be with one another.

[Chorus]

Joy.

[Pat Wright]

And to emphasize the joy that the two sisters are feeling, right at the end of the second act, we have the chorus. The nymphs and the swains tell us how beautiful this whole situation is and all appears divine.

[Chorus]

Sam.

[Pat Wright]

This is opera for everyone and we are discussing Handel's Semile. We're ready to start Act 3 of our three act opera. And we open in the Cave of Sleep.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. So Somnus is the God of sleep, where we get words like somnambulist, a sleepwalker. In mythology, Somnus lives in a cave by the river Leth. The Leith is the. The water of forgetting. If you go into that water, you forget everything. So there's, there's a lot of elements here where the Greeks and the Romans represented sleep, forgetfulness, death, dreams once again through these embodied gods and goddesses. But Somnus also has a little whatchamacallit, a MacGuffin, that Juno needs. So Juno and Iris have come down to his place of sleep, his cave of sleep, to try and get it from him.

[Pat Wright]

That's the plan they created. They've got to get those dragons to sleep.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I love this because it's like this whole side story that doesn't actually get that much time in this, and I want more. I would love to just watch Juno and Iris's adventures on this, like in another piece.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, sure.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Because they're fun. And even though they're kind of doing this all for a bad end, they're fun. They're real comedic relief here.

[Pat Wright]

Yeah. Iris can be portrayed as someone who is under the thumb, under the heel of Juno, or she can be portrayed as someone who's just doing her best and it's gonna be fine. A little more comic, but they show up and of course, the God of sleep is sound asleep. And they have a really hard time waking him up. But Juno comes up with a way to wake him up. They semi wake him up and he sings kind of a slow piece where he's like, just leave me alone. Let me go back to sleep. But Juno says, I've got something you might want.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So Juno offers him the nymph Pasitheia. And a nymph is sort of a minor, minor goddess, I would say, is a good way to think about it. This is actually a story that's lifted from another source, like some of the other stuff we've talked about. It's right from the Iliad. This is mentioned that Hypnos is the Greek name for sleep. Hypnos is given Pasithea by Hera to be his bride as well. And Pasitheia later becomes one of the three graces that attend on Aphrodite. So if you ever see those, those lovely. I think I actually have one on my shelf. If you could see us one of those lovely little statues of the three goddesses, the three graces together. She is one of them.

[Pat Wright]

Well, Somnus is interested and this wakes him up a little bit.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. This is. The one thing that wakes him up is love. Of course, it all comes back to love.

[Chorus]

More sweet is Duck's name Than a soft purling stream More sweet is that name Than a soft purling stream More sweet is that name than a song Than a soft purling stream Than a soft. Than a soft purling stream More sweet is that name More sweet is that name than a so Than a soft purling stream More Sweet. More sweet. Sweet is the name, for sweet is at name the most offerling stream. With pleasure, with pleasure, repose. I have a sake, if you grant me, but to soothe me away. With pleasure, with pleasure, repose I'll forsake if you'll grant me butter to suit me away. To suit me away.

[Pat Wright]

Now that Juno has the attention of the God of sleep, gotten him awake with the promise of this nymph that he adores, she needs some things from him.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. She needs his rod of sleep. It's referred to the staff or wand or something, or MacGuffin that's gonna do what she needs, which is put the dragons to sleep.

[Pat Wright]

Right. And she also needs him to order Morpheus to give the order to insert a dream into Job's sleep so that he wakes up up desiring Semele even more than he typically does. Basically get him all hot and bothered.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. Yeah. Which I like that this is a part of it because it really sets up well, not just what Juno is going to do to Semele, but what she's going to do to Jove. So that Jove then does something that makes her plan work. So it's many steps ahead. As we've said before, she's the great planner here, and Morpheus is the God of dreams and is sort of the servant of sleep. And so he's going to. Yeah, get him all worked up.

[Pat Wright]

Right. That he may wake impetuous, furious in desire, she says.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And I would say another interesting point, just briefly, is that the dream is meant to be a dream of a more beautiful Semele than she actually is, which will feature importantly into the next time we see Semele. And we'll put a pin in that.

[Chorus]

All I must grant for all is due to PAHs.

[Pat Wright]

Juno has accomplished the tasks she set out to accomplish with the God of sleep. Her plan is being put into place, but there's more. She needs to now encounter Semele herself.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah, we see Emily. This is the third time that we have really spent some time with Emily. And every time we've seen her, she's gone from being very happy to. I'm not sure about this. I love him, but. And now she's really, truly troubled. She's unable to sleep. A lovely connection there. Not necessarily that that's been done to her intentionally. I think this is just. Her mind will not let her sleep. But she keeps saying, I won't sleep, but I'll wake up and I'll have joy in the day because I'm with the love of my life. But that's not going to be enough, I think, to continue to sustain her.

[Pat Wright]

No, no. And when she was unhappy before her sister showed up, well, guess what? It appears that her sister has shown up again. But it only appears.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. So Juno is disguising herself as Aino.

[Pat Wright]

Now and having essentially drugged her sister.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right. So that Aino doesn't show up, have doubles, then it really would be Shakespearean. So she shows up and she is carrying a gift for her sister and tells us in an aside that she's shaped like Aino. But really she's here with this plot to mess with Semele's mind.

[Pat Wright]

And just a little fun bit of. Of staging to remember. The same singer sings the roles of Juno and Aino. And so here we have Juno pretending to be Aino. The same.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

It's just.

[Pat Wright]

It's a lot, but.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

But it's lovely because whenever you have that too. And there's a little bit of character doubling that works too. I like that. Because in this case, both Juno and Aino are characters who. The person they love has been stolen by Semele. So they have a lot of. Of common cause here, even though it might not be, you know, Aino doesn't get to. To participate. So she approaches her sister, quote, unquote, and she says, do I some goddess? See?

[Pat Wright]

Yes. You're so beautiful.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She's saying, you know, you're so much more beautiful than the last time I saw you. Have you become a goddess? And Semele, of course, this is an arrow to her heart. This is the thing she wants.

[Pat Wright]

That's right. That's right.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And Juno really gasses her up here.

[Pat Wright]

Well, because Aino knows that Semele knows that Aino knows that she wants to become immortal to match with. With Joe.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. And semily, to her credit, says, no, I didn't. I don't see any difference. I think I look exactly the same. But that, of course, once again gives Juno the perfect opportunity. Poor Semilli really doesn't have a shot here. She can't play on the same field as. As Juno. She just doesn't. She doesn't have the intelligence or the cunning or the wiliness. To her credit, I think she's. She's a. She's a sweeter person, but she's outgunned here. And Juno uses this moment to pull out her magic mirror. And now we're in full fairy tale world. Yeah. And it's Snow White. I will say even more Snow White of it all, the original text that this is taken from the Ovid. She doesn't disguise herself as the sister. She disguises herself as an old crone.

[Pat Wright]

Oh, very.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Snow White finds the cottage in the woods and says, here, I have this mirror and I want to show you how beautiful you really are. So, yes, there's a lot of fairy tale resonances there.

[Pat Wright]

Yes. And she, Semele, becomes enraptured with the sight of herself in this mirror, because the mirror is magical. It makes her look goddess like, beautiful.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And I want to point out here we're starting to see a couple of references to the word ecstasy, which I think is important. She says, oh, this is an ecstasy of happiness. And all of what she sings here about how beautiful she is is starting to sound frenzied. It's about the excess of it. She's not just beautiful, she's the most beautiful. She's obsessed with herself. And we've seen this a little bit in her love for Jove, too. It's. There's just this. This limerence to it, this obsessiveness. And that all is part of why it can't last. Because there's no balance here. There's no order. It's in excess.

[Pat Wright]

Just what Juno wanted.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes, exactly. She is stirring them both up to frenzied heights, Right?

[Pat Wright]

She's made sure that Jo has been given these dreams. And Semele, speaking of excess, just a handful of words, but she goes on for well over six minutes saying, myself, I shall adore. If I persist in gazing, no object sure before was ever half so pleasing. I don't think I got the rhyme right, but you get the idea.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. And this really plays to her vanity, of course, that she. She wants to be a goddess. She wants to be immortal, not just to be with Jove forever, but also because she then will be the most beautiful. She wants the whole package here. And there is a sense that Juno knows exactly how to come at you with your weakest point.

[Pat Wright]

Exactly.

[Chorus]

Yeah. Sa if I persist in Easy. Myself I shall adore. If I shall adore Myself I shall adore if I persist in me J SA if I persist in.

[Pat Wright]

That was a little taste of semilli beans. Being infatuated with her own beauty, courtesy of this beautiful mirror. Everything's working according to plan as far as Juno is concerned. And then Juno makes her move as IO Yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She then says, well, I know something that might help you out here. Semlie falls for this. Maybe she shouldn't. But she says, if you can get him to. If you can get Jupiter to Approach you with his full glory, not disguised as immortal, but as the God himself that will make you into a goddess. And he's hiding this information from you. He doesn't want you to know. So you just have to get him to do this. You have to say, you have to promise me you'll give me whatever I want and then ask him for that. And Semele really get the promise first? Yeah. Hook, line and sinker here. And she's so happy. And she says, and I just love this, she says, when I'm a goddess, I'll grace you with my charms. I'll make you as beautiful as me because I'm so thankful. Which is honestly what a backhanded compliment that is to basically say you're not as beautiful as me. But don't worry. When I'm a goddess, I'll fix that.

[Pat Wright]

Thanks, sister. Yep.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So, yes, the plan is in place.

[Pat Wright]

The plan is in place and Jupiter is going to show up. Come to my arms, my lovely fair. Because we all know that he's been dreaming dreams where he must be with Emily. Not so fast, my friend. She's going to tell him yes.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She comes at him and she says, no, wait. I'm always the one who's granting you whatever you want. And you're always complaining. And it means. This is like a classic couple spat. All of a sudden, I'm always doing this and you're never letting me do this. Back and forth, back and forth. And he is like, all right, fine, just whatever you want.

[Pat Wright]

He's trying to placate her, right?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Whatever you want, I'll give you. I don't want you to be un. Upset. He doesn't really understand why she is upset, but it doesn't matter. He says, okay, whatever you want. Now, I will say, in mythology, as in fairy tales, never ever do an absolute never say, I will.

[Pat Wright]

I'm writing a blank check.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Exactly. I will give you whatever you want, no matter what you ask me. Because I guarantee he's not gonna like what she asks. We obviously already know what that's going to be. And she makes him swear. An oath like that can't be broken.

[Pat Wright]

No. Not even if you're a German.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And he does. So they both are hoist by their own petard here a little bit. They both use their hubris and it really works against them here.

[Pat Wright]

Yes, she is very clear. Cast off this human shape and appear like yourself just as her sister. Or so she thinks it was her sister. Just as her sister told her to do. And I think it's so interesting. He tries to, in a way, talk her out of it. Careful what you're asking for. If I grant this request, I will harm you. And then she launches into him. I will take no less.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

You.

[Chorus]

You're rooting me alone. You. Oh, you. You're ok.

[Pat Wright]

No, I'll take no less. Se says. And Jupiter is just thinking, this is not going to work. Why did I rashly swear that oath that you said that he must honor? And he says, it's past recall. She must a victim fall. And he explains, in case we didn't know, if I appear not in my mortal form, if I appear truly as the God of thunder and lightning and fire, she will instantly die and there's nothing I can do about it anymore.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. And she cannot be persuaded to take it back. And, I mean, it wouldn't matter even if she did. This is. Their fate is sealed. And so Juno, of course, is very happy. There's a little moment there where she gets to celebrate how happy she is.

[Pat Wright]

I just. And some of the lines in this, I just. Love above measure is the pleasure which my revenge supplies. Loves a bubble gained with trouble and in possessing dies.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

It's wonderful. I know. It's almost like double, double toil and trouble a little bit, the way she.

[Pat Wright]

Says it there, Speaking of Shakespeare.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

She's just having a good time. Sweet revenge. Her plan is coming together.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

So here, if you're on the side of Juno, you get the little happy revenge song there, but then you're on the side of poor Semele. We get to see her unfortunate death scene where he. He does what he promised and he. He says, he's like, I'll try to use my, like, softest lightning, basically.

[Pat Wright]

No, he's like, it's not gonna work.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

He's like, try to be gentle. Yeah. So it does burn her and it turns her to ash and she is consumed and dies. And then we go back to the mortal world. Her family is there, back where we started. Yeah. We are here with Cadmus and Athamas and Aino and the chorus of priests who are all terror and astonishment about what they have just seen.

[Pat Wright]

And once the populace is responding to all of this astonishment, Aino fills us in a little bit about what's been happening.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah. So the last time we heard about her, she was in her sleep deep trance that she was put in by Juno so that they wouldn't accidentally show up at the same time.

[Pat Wright]

Right.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

But it also seems that while she was asleep, some other stuff was happening, which this is A bit weird, honestly. And I'm not sure I totally believe her. We're supposed to believe she's just wrapping.

[Pat Wright]

Up the loose ends, I think.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I think it's more loose ends because all of a sudden Hermes is there, who hasn't showed up at all in this. And Hermes says that, oh, Athamas and her should wed. That that's the message that Hermes has sent. And I guess maybe Jove is just like, well, I don't want to leave these human loose ends, so let me send my messenger to clean them all up. Or maybe Aino's just taking advantage of the fact that she gets to.

[Pat Wright]

It feels ambiguous, honestly, when she just says, and Jove ordained that I, Athamas, should wed the thing I've wanted since the beginning of this story.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Exactly. Well, if Jove wants it, then we're all good.

[Pat Wright]

Well, that's what her father says.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yeah, exactly. So they are going to be wed. And then Apollo, another God that we haven't seen before, there's suddenly all these other characters showing up at the end.

[Pat Wright]

You know, gods.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Right. And. But. But they're all Jove's people, too. And I think that's part of it. Like, we've been with Juno's people. Apollo, the sun God, comes down and says, I have some good news for you guys. I know you're all really upset about this.

[Pat Wright]

This is our deus ex machina moment.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Yes. I want to tell you guys that Semele was pregnant and there will be a child still from the.

[Pat Wright]

Even though she's been burned to ash.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

She's been burned to ash. Yes, but the child is half God and so can survive such things. And he says, from her ashes a phoenix will rise and will be the joy of the earth. That he's going to be the most delighted and beloved God and he's going to be more mighty than love and will prevent sighing and sorrow forever, which is. Wow, wonderful. Sounds great. I wonder what could do that. It turns out it's the God of wine. Yeah. Going to be. Bacchus is going to be born from the ashes, and that is her child. And the thing that Semele is probably most known for is that she is the mother of Dionysus or Bacchus. Joy for everybody, because they say, oh, wonderful. I can't wait to forget all of our cares because there's no more sorrow if you just have a nice jug of wine. Yeah.

[Pat Wright]

They've been told by Apollo himself, it's all fine, people.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

It's all fine.

[Pat Wright]

And guess what? They simply accept that. And we get to end our baroque opera with a happy tune, a happy choral tune, in fact. The first words are happy, happy shall we be?

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

I mean, nobody's gonna be happy, I'll tell you that much, though, sorry to say this. And I, you know, I won't go too much into that. Like, look into Athamas. There's some interesting things there. One very, very short thing I'll say is after he and Aina wed, they have some children. She's intensely jealous of some of his other children that he's had with other women and she.

[Pat Wright]

Emma's had children with other women? Yeah.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

He actually has three wives throughout, and then he has children with all of them. There's lots of things going on not mentioned here, I know, but one of the interesting little things is Aino takes care of Bacchus as sort of a stepmother after her sister is killed, and that angers Hera or Juno terribly and so sends a frenzy down upon Athamas. And Athamas goes into a Bacchanalian frenzy and murders his child. Oh, no. And his wife and other other child jump into the sea to escape him and die. So I'm sorry to end it on such a sad note, but I will just say I think it's very interesting that the thing that's coming here, the great God that's coming, is the God of excess ecstasy. Just. There's no reason or order or any of that. It is the God of wine and drunkenness and frenzy. So ushering in a very different age.

[Pat Wright]

Yes, yes. Well, Kathleen, once again, I thank you most sincerely for joining me on Opera for Everyone to talk about another opera, Handel.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Semeleep, always happy to be here. Happy to talk about the Greeks anytime.

[Pat Wright]

Thanks for listening to this episode of Opera for Everyone.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

Opera for Everyone airs every Sunday morning from 9 to 11 Mountain Time on 89.1 Khol, Jackson, Wyoming. If you missed any of today's show, you can find this episode and many others on the Opera for Everyone podcast.

[Pat Wright]

And while you're there, please subscribe, rate and comment. You'll be helping other to find us. Opera can be challenging, but everyone loves a good story.

[Kathleen Vanderwil]

And a story set to music is even better.

[Pat Wright]

Our mission is to make opera enjoyable for everyone because we believe opera is for everyone.