Semele

Handel's music can crawl under your skin — and even more so when it is portrayed as movingly and credibly as in Barrie Kosky's production of Semele. Kosky brings the gods acting in Handel's oratorio very close to us by showing them as entangled in the set of rules they created just as much as the people.

Jupiter falls for the immensely beautiful king's daughter Semele just as she does to the father of the gods. Semele wants nothing more than to be able to see him in his true form. Only when he shows himself to her in all his divinity does she feel equal to him. Semele's ambition is fuelled by Jupiter's jealous wife Juno, but leads her to ruin. The mortal Semele has nothing to oppose Jupiter's scorching presence. Semele must pass away and Jupiter moves forward.