SEMELE | Margarita Slepakova & Le Sommeil | Album premiere concert

Three Baroque operas. Three musical worlds. One myth.

On November 18, the Lublin Philharmonic will host the premiere concert of the debut album SEMELE, the latest project by mezzo-soprano Margarita Slepaková and the international ensemble of early music founded by her, Le Sommeil. Two days later, the album will be released worldwide by PENTATONE, one of the leading international classical music labels.

What do French tragedie lyrique, English baroque opera and Handel's dramatic musical theatre have in common?

The myth of Semele, Jupiter's mortal mistress, who longed to see God as he really is.

John Eccles, Marin Marais and Georg Friedrich Händel told the story in three different ways, creating works of different character, style and musical language. The SEMELE program combines French elegance, English expressiveness and Italian virtuosity present in Handel's music. Arias, recitatives and instrumental fragments of three operas, created over the course of almost four decades, form a new, dramatically-coherent whole.

Margarita Slepakova, coloratura mezzo-soprano and curator, winner of the prestigious REMA Remarkable 2025 award, began her career under the guidance of Sir John Eliot Gardiner and is currently the founder of Le Sommeil, an award-winning early music ensemble that brings together outstanding soloists of the young generation of the European historical performance scene. Its members regularly collaborate with leading European ensembles such as: Il Giardino Armonico, English Baroque Soloists, Il Pomo d'Oro, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Les Talens Lyriques, Le Consort, The English Concert, Irish Baroque Orchestra and others.

In SEMELE, artists offer their own perspective on the story of a woman who decides to abandon the safety of her golden cage to seek the truth, regardless of the consequences.

The inspiration of the project is the study of the relationship between myth, dream and archetype and their contemporary resonance in the music of the past.

The Lublin evening begins the international premiere week of SEMELE. Further events will take place at the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw (19 November) and in the Voltahalle in Basel (22 November). The world premiere of the album PENTATONE is scheduled for November 20, and on November 26 the project will also be broadcast on TVP Kultura.